Cookie Dough 4: The Longest Day of their Lives
by DavidB226Morris
Summary: COMPLETE AT LAST! The team at AngelSlayer discovers that the event prophesized by Leonard is powerful enough to bring about the endtimes and its going to happen today. The apocalypse is here and time is not on their side. Review early and often.
1. 12 AM to 1AM

Reshaping The Cookie Dough 4: The Longest Day of their Lives

A Buffy/Angel Story (with a twist)

By David Morris

Summary: The team at Angel-Slayer Inc. discovers the great evil that was prophesized by Leonard is powerful enough to bring about the end-times -- and it's going to happen today. The apocalypse is coming and time is not on their side.

Rating: PG-13 (Strong language, Violence)

Disclaimer: Buffy, Angel, Willow, Giles and all the rest are property of Joss Whedon and all of the other brilliant writers who work for him at Mutant Enemy. I have no claim to them nor will they ever be my property. The character of Leonard Kopell is, has, and always will be my property.

Spoilers: Like the previous Buffy stories that I have written, this story is set in an alternative universe sometime after the series finale of Buffy and the Season 4 finale of Angel. It isn't necessary to have read them to understand this story, but it certainly couldn't hurt. Anything in either universe is fair game. And in this story, a lot of it is going to matter.

Note: This story is very different from the others in format. In the style of 24, the other brilliant show on television, each chapter will be devoted to one hour in the day the story takes place. Events won't occur in real time, but the clock is running. And don't worry, there will be no stories involving young girls on the run or presidential peccadilloes. Promise. With that in mind, here we go…

CHAPTER 1

**The Following Takes Place Between 12 AM and 1 AM on the Autumnal Equinox**

Fred Burkle watched as the computer began to run its last set of calculations. It took only two minutes, but that was time enough to think of something Giles had said a few days ago.

For the last few weeks been going over prophecies, looking for the big bad that their new seer Leonard had seen them fighting. Their progress had been retarded slightly because Giles had been insisting on going through most of the old scrolls and texts they had by hand instead of letting the computers do it. Willow had told her to let Giles work at his own pace considering that he had only gotten out of the hospital three weeks ago. But after she received what must have been the tenth reminder in five days from Wesley that time was of the essence, she had gone to the main library to try and hurry Giles along.

In the course of their discussion Fred had asked Giles what he had against letting a computer do at least part of the work. Giles had gotten a strange look on his face -- as if he were remembering something painful. Then he had told Fred that he didn't fully trust computers.

"I realize that we live in an electronic age where everything and everyone seems to be moving at the speed of light," he had said, "but for all the great things that the computer does, it takes something away from the whole process of research. I realize that your laptop is capable of reaching more knowledge in a few minutes then that was in my old library. But--" He had paused long enough to make Fred think he had lost his train of thought. "--it's all gossamer."

"There's nothing delicate or flimsy about it," Fred had said, surprised.

" Its all lights and colors. There's nothing solid to it. I feel that if you can't feel it or touch it or, God help me, smell it, its not really there. No matter what my eyes tell me, I don't fully trust them." He paused. "I realize that makes me something of a dinosaur but some old habits are worth holding on to. I'll use the computer for some of the more obscure works but I'd prefer to do this in my own fashion."

Fred had wanted to object but something about the request touched the physics major in her. She had agreed to take on a little more work to help them pick up the slack. And now, as she waited for the computer to spit out the last set of numbers, she couldn't help but wonder if there was something to it. The computer was a vital instrument but some things needed a human touch. As important as these calculations were, it somehow seemed wrong not to be doing them by hand and working out the final answer rather than waiting for the…

Before she could finish the thought, the printer spat out the last pages. They were covered with equations and symbols but she looked at the bottom of the page and found what she needed.

It took her only a moment to realize that what they had feared had been borne out. She picked up the phone and dialed 5. Wesley picked it up after one ring.

"Fred."

"I've run the last set of numbers. It's today."

There was a moment of silence.

"I'll call them all in."

**12:05:34 --- 12:05:35 --- 12:05:36 --- 12:05:37**

Silver Knight Pub

"Today, after six months of speculation, Ohio Senator David Palmer officially announced that he will be running for the Democratic nomination for President. The first African-American to be elected to the Senate since the 1870's, he is considered by D.C. insiders as one of the most trusted men in Washington."

"Yeah, that counts for a lot." Xander turned away from the television in surprise, not so much because of the remark as to the man who had said it.

"Robin, I would think that you of all people would be glad to see that Palmers running," said Xander.

"Hey there isn't a black person in the country who wouldn't want to turn on the television and see someone black with their hand on the Bible who isn't on trial." Robin stopped and took a sip of his beer.

"But..."

Robin gestured to Gunn.

"But…we're realists," said Gunn. "And the fact is that the country is run by a bunch of fat, old white men who have no intention of letting anybody other than other fat old white men run the country."

"Geopolitical analysis from Charles Gunn and Robin Wood, political insiders extraordinaire," said Xander in mock-seriousness. "Authors of _There's No Such Thing As The Right Way _and…"

"You know these discussions make me glad I don't vote," said Faith who had been quietly drinking her beer while all this had been going on.

The boys turned to her. "Faith, I hate to break this to you but you're a convicted felon" said Gunn.

"Gee thanks, I'd forgotten."

"Convicted felons can't vote," said Robin. Faith was a smarter girl than most people gave her credit for but on some subjects she needed a little help.

"I know that." she said, mock huffily. "It's just that I would prefer a conversation about me not include the words 'convicted' and 'felon'. It's not the kind of thing you want to spread around, all right?"

"Fair comment." said Robin.

"Anyways," said Faith, lifting her glass up, "answer the question."

"I've forgotten what it was." admitted Xander. Being around Faith still flustered him a little.

"Am I missing anything by not being able to vote?"

"I'd say, given the cut of today's politicians, there is an argument against going to the polls." Xander said.

"Amen," said Gunn, swallowing the last of his beer.

"Could we talk about something else? Something normal?" asked Faith.

"This is a normal conversation. You don't recognize it because there's nothing demon related in it," Xander replied.

"That's the whole reason we're at this fine establishment," said Gunn. "To go somewhere where there are no vampires or demons or prophecies with the words 'impending doom' in them. In short, to get away from work."

The split second after he said 'work', Gunn's pager started to go off.

"All right; who couldn't have seen that one coming?" asked Xander. Five seconds later his pager started going off. Then Faith's. Then Robin's.

"Okay, this is getting a little creepy," Faith said.

"I'll call the office, see what's going down." Xander said, taking out his cell phone and walking away from their table.

Faith turned to Robin. "So this is a boys night out, huh?"

"You were expecting lap dancers?" said Robin wryly.

The dark-haired Slayer made a provocative gesture. "What makes you think I wouldn't have wanted one?"

"Now there's an image that's going to linger."

"Seriously, this is your kind of thing. Why let me tag along?"

Robin shrugged. "You haven't taken in any real time off in a month. I figure you could stand to decompress a little."

"You've never seen me let off steam. That part of me isn't one that I think you'd like very much," Faith only half-jested.

"You don't have to wear that face all the time."

"Pretty sure that I gotta."

"Be as flip as you want, you're not going to make me run screaming from the room."

"Are--Are you serious?"

Before Robin had a chance to answer that question, Xander turned to the three of them. His expression was serious which was somewhat alarming. It took quite a bit to wipe the happy off Xander's face but this had.

"That was Giles. We need to get back to the office right away. Somebody pay for the drinks; I'm gonna bring the car around."

"Whoa, whoa," said Gunn. "That's a lot of talking without any details."

"Giles said they're calling everybody in. No one in Angel-Slayer, Inc. is going to get any sleep tonight," said Xander. "He didn't tell me anything over the phone because he and Wesley and the others only want to have to tell this once."

Robin considered his words. "You think this has something to do with this apocalypse prophecy that we've been talking about for the last few weeks?"

"He wouldn't say but I figure it's a pretty safe bet."

"Get the car." In the space of a few seconds, Faith had gone from pleasure to business. Xander nodded and headed for the exit.

"Faith…" Robin tried to finish.

"Later. When the sky isn't about to fall on us."

Robin was surprised by the metaphor as well as the fact what she seemed willing to do.

Neither knew that they wouldn't have much of a chance of following through.

**12:18:45 --- 12:18:46 --- 12:18:47 --- 12:18:48**

An alley in downtown L.A.

The two young girls were cornered by five vampires. They had been caught off guard. It seemed very likely that they were going to die. It wasn't just that they were outnumbered, it was that the demons looked as if they would have been pretty formidable even if they weren't undead. They looked as if they might have been down with the Crips and the Bloods -- pun not intended.

"I don't know why you ladies cut through our corner" said the apparent leader of the group, a big-muscled, broad shouldered, leather clad biker type. "But I can't tell you how glad I am that you humans are so stupid." He turned to his companions, all of whom seemed cut from the same cloth, "Ain't we boys?"

The others made loud noises which most likely equaled approval. Then closed in on the girls menacingly.

One of the girls -- small, Oriental and apparently very frail -- piped up: "It's 'aren't."

The alpha vampire looked up bemused. "Excuse me?"

"The correct grammar is 'Aren't we boys,'" said the young girl in halting -- but firm -- English.

"Ain't, aren't. So what? What are you gonna do? Rap my knuckles?" The punk began to laugh heartily. Right until she picked up a pair of chopsticks from a nearby garbage can and drove it into his heart in one swift motion.

"Maybe. Maybe some place different." she said before the vamp turned to dust.

In the past five months Cho-San had finally gotten a very good course on English from the other Watchers. She was still trying to master the play on words that Buffy and Faith managed, but she still didn't quite have it down pat.

She had learned other skills from them, though.

It took a few seconds for the other vampires to recover from the dusting of their leader as well as the fact that these girls had game. Cho-San and Patrice had learned how to take advantage of these lapses -- as the other vampires found out very quickly. In a matter of seconds, the previously helpless girls armed themselves and laid a serious ass-kicking on their would-be killers. The vampires fought hard and desperately, as if they couldn't believe how quickly this was happening. But in the space of two minutes, three of them had joined their leader as dust on the pavement. The two girls stood up to face the last one.

The last vampire, demonstrating a level of intelligence that far exceeded the average undead flunky, looked at the girls and then turned around and bolted. Perhaps a little stunned by their success, they hesitated for a second-- just long enough for it to almost reach the end of the alley. Indeed, he would have gotten away if an arrow hadn't flown from above and pierced his heart. A comic look of surprise appeared on his face before it turned to dust.

Cho-San and Patrice looked up to the fire escape where the crossbow bolt had come from. "We can handle these things ourselves, thank you very much," Patrice said haughtily.

Buffy emerged from the fire escape where she had been monitoring her two charges. "He would have gotten away."

"We could have run him down."

"No you couldn't."

"What makes you so sure?" Now Patrice was just being pissy.

"Because there's no way I could have either."

Patrice thought about pissing Buffy off, then decided to let the matter drop.

"In any case, the two of you did a pretty good job."

"_Pretty _good?" said a voice from the shadows. Though it was trying to sound serious, there was still a certain amount of good humor in it. "They went from being hopelessly outmatched to Masters of the Universe in the space of three minutes. That's a little more than 'pretty good.'"

Under normal circumstances the two Slayers would have delivered a beating to the green-skinned demon that finally emerged into the light. Instead they smiled and Patrice gave him a high-five.

"Lorne," said Buffy, "we've talked about being so loose."

The demon raised an eyebrow (or at least what would be an eyebrow on a man) and said: 'Excuse me, girls." before taking Buffy aside.

"I know that you're having a little anxiety about how to handle this whole Watcher gig," Lorne started.

"I am not…" Buffy sputtered indignantly.

"Honey, it's coming off you in waves," said the demon with no doubt in his voice. When Buffy had simmered down, he continued: "I know you're concerned about doing this right but you've been pounding on these girls like there's no tomorrow. "

"For all we know there isn't."

Lorne sighed. "You're not going to get on that horse again."

"The prophecies--"

"-- are unclear," finished Lorne. "Something bad is coming, I'm agreeing with you there, but you can't keep talking like every single training session is a rehearsal for Operation Desert Storm or you'll wear everyone down to nothing. Including yourself," he added almost as an afterthought.

Buffy was about to respond when suddenly Lorne's pager began to go off. She had turned hers off so it wouldn't start up and spook the vamps so she turned it back on, digital part first. On it was a simple message: "Back to A/S now. W."

"We gotta get back to the office."

"Thank you, because I'm not capable of answering my own pager," said Lorne with a trace more sarcasm than usual.

She looked back up the alley. "Patrice, Cho-San, we've got to head back to base." Without raising a fuss, the two junior Slayers fell in behind Buffy and Lorne.

No one spoke until they reached the car which, for obvious reasons, had been parked away from the alley. Then Buffy's cell phone rang. Buffy looked the caller ID and sighed. "Lorne, I gotta take this. You drive. " She ignored the collective sigh of relief from the others (she still wasn't very competent behind the wheel) and got in the car.

"Dawn, what are you doing up so late?"

"Hey don't yell at me. I was going to sleep. It's just…"

Buffy waited impatiently for her sister's explanation. "Yes?"

"I got this email labeled 'URGENT'. "

"Was it from Mr. Spiro Orestes telling you that you have sixteen million dollars coming to you from his late wife?" Something told Buffy it wasn't that simple.

"No, it was from someone at work. " Dawn hesitated.

"What did it say?"

" 'Eli's coming. Hide your heart.'"

Given everything that had happened over the past seven years, Buffy didn't think that it was possible for her to feel scared about anything. The message, originally meant as a joke, sent a chill through her.

"Dawn, call Xander or Willow and tell them to pick you up. Tell them to get you to the building as fast as you can."

Dawn seemed surprised. "But tomorrow's a school day."

"If I can I'll come up with a letter for the principal."

Dawn paused and thought about it. "Buffy."

"Yeah."

"Is this the bad thing that you've been trying to hide for the past couple of weeks?"

Buffy didn't even think before responding: "I think so."

There was silence. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Thank you."

Dawn hung up. Buffy turned to Lorne. "Remember what you said about acting like there's no tomorrow?"

"Yeah."

"I was more right than I knew." Buffy looked straight ahead, thinking of what was to come.

**12:34:45 --- 12:34:46 ---12:34:47 --- 12:34:48**

Main Library of Wolfram & Hart

Ever since Rupert Giles was a teenager, he had had to deal with things that no ordinary person should have to deal with. After a phase of rebellion, he had settled into the pattern that he maintained for much of his life. He tucked his fear and pain in a private place and dealt with them when he was by himself.

As he had grown into his life that was the world surrounding Buffy and her friends and came to realize that she was a bright vivacious rebel, he had had to add several other fears to his list. There was the fear that he would one day fail his charge. That was a fear that he had never seen coming. Then there was the fear that people that he cared about might die, though in the case of Jenny Calendar, he had lost whatever control he had. Then there was the fear of the end of the world-- a threat he had encountered on a monthly basis for the seven years that he was in Sunnydale. It was hard but he had managed to maintain his level of calm and not let fear overwhelm him.

Then he had come to Los Angeles. Two months later he stared death in the face.

And flinched.

The doctors never told him how close the bullet meant to end Buffy's life had come to ending his own. He had tried to maintain his stalwart attitude, but something fundamental in him had changed.

It wasn't just the fact that he was bedridden for a month or that he had been on crutches until a week ago. It was that something deep within him had shifted. The façade of calm that he maintained was now just that. Emotionally it was like all the fear he had told himself he had put away was out and pushing all his buttons. He was afraid -- of facing death again, of the possible death that might await any of the slayers he was watching, of the prophecies that were foretelling the end. But while he had been able to control these fears as recently as two months ago, now his fear was controlling him. He had come back to work he had been unable to send his slayers into dangerous situations. Which involved sending them out into the field or doing a great deal more than researching information.

He had managed to cover up the feelings under the guise that he was recuperating from a very serious trauma, and because there had not been a major crisis that had involved any of them. But his friends and colleagues who ran Angel-Slayer Inc. must have begun to notice that his convalescence had been over for almost a week and he still hadn't taken any of his charges out into the field. Or that he had been less aggressive in their training than he had been when he was in Sunnydale. He knew what was coming but he didn't know what to do.

"Rupert?"

And now it seemed he had run out of time. "I'm over here Wesley."

The younger Watcher walked over to him. "They'll be here in another ten minutes."

"Do they know what this is about?"

"We thought it best that they all hear it at once." Wesley put his hand on Giles's shoulder. "Are you ready for this?"

"I don't think that its possible for anyone to ever be ready for this. Anyone who says they are is a liar."

"That's not what I meant and you know it." Wesley took a deep breath. "After…after my throat was slit, I withdrew into myself. I told myself it was because Angel and the others had turned their back on me. But…" He paused and seemed to be mentally gathering himself. "I thought that I had failed in every respect. And that because of my failure, I was unworthy of redeeming myself. Even after they forgave me I kept telling myself I didn't deserve it. I'm still not sure I have."

Giles took this in. "I understand what you're trying to tell me and I am grateful, but—"

"But?"

"I can function. I will be able to work. You don't need to worry about me."

"You misunderstand me. I don't want you--"

"I appreciate the attempt to be cordial, but I know that's not high on your priorities now."

"Rupert—"

"You need to know whether I can function so I am not a hindrance today. You are concerned for me and I do appreciate that, but right now my emotional state is less important than whether we can get through this crisis."

Wesley withdrew his hand -- but he did not deny what Giles had said.

"I was schooled, as were you, to perform under just these circumstances. My training has carried me through every crisis over the past seven years. It will carry me through now."

Wesley took this in. "The last time we talked about this, you said the Watchers were barbaric and archaic. Now you think it can help you through today?"

"That's not the training I was talking about and you know it."

Wesley considered this. He seemed about to respond, when his beeper went off. He glanced at it "That'll be Willow. We have to get ready. You're sure you can do this?"

And even though he wasn't, he turned to Wesley and said, "I have to be." Then, to hold off further questions, he began walking towards the door, praying to a God that he wasn't sure that he believed in that he would get through this.

**12:48:17 --- 12:48:18 --- 12:48:19 --- 12:48:20**

Boardroom of Angel-Slayer Inc.

Angel knew that he should have been in the office with this crisis brewing -- which was probably the reason he had gone to the training room. For the past two weeks the entire office had been on high alert with prophecies and foreshadowings of doom, and he knew that another rough beast was slouching toward Bethlehem. He had needed to get away from it all for a little while, and the training room was one of the few places in the building where he felt comfortable. He knew that some of the others had places of refuge: for Giles it was the libraries, for Fred it was the lab, and for Lorne it was the sauna. He hadn't needed a sanctuary before, but the business of trying to find redemption wears on you after a while.

He had gone to the training room because he had the feeling that things were going to get real bad real soon. There wasn't going to be much peace for any of them for a while.

When he had entered the boardroom Willow and Fred (who along with Giles and Wesley were the think tank of Angel-Slayer Inc.) were already there. Both were typing on computers whose large wall monitors that were used only for big deals. Angel figured that this qualified.

Off to one side, Leonard was talking to Andrew. In the three months since he had reluctantly become a member of the team, Leonard still remained something of a closed book. Aside from telling them about his latest vision, he didn't talk much to any of the others outside of Andrew, Robin, Xander and Gunn. He had made it pretty clear why in a weak moment when he referred to them as 'the normal ones'. Even though he had been watching them in his mind for nearly four years, he still didn't seem to like any of the ones with 'superpowers,' to use Xander's phrase.

A few seconds later, Giles and Wesley entered the room.

"How soon until the rest of them get here?" asked Wesley.

Willow walked from the monitor to the GPS tracker a few feet away. "They're all in the building except for Dawn. She had to take a cab, so she's going to be a few more minutes."

"Not to be a wet blanket but I think maybe we should start without her," said Fred.

"She's a member of the board, she's earned the right to hear this," Angel replied.

"I'm just thinking that since time is a factor we may need to go ahead."

"Why is time such a factor?" Angel turned towards the door on his immediate right. Xander, Faith, Gunn and Robin had arrived. Xander gestured towards the heavens. "I mean its not like the universe is going to end tonight, is it?" When there was a long pause, Xander's sarcastic tone disappeared. "Oh sweet mother Macree, not again."

"Y'know, I know we're the white hats and we have to deal with these kinds of things," Gunn said, "but don't we get any kind of break? It's only been four months since we had to deal with -- how many apocalypses?" he asked Willow.

"At least three," Willow answered. "And you should consider yourself lucky. Back in Sunnydale, it seemed like we were dealing with end-of-the-world scenarios every other week."

"They say there's no rest for the wicked," Giles said, "but there isn't much for the good either."

"It's no picnic whatever side you're on," said Faith, the tiniest bit perturbed.

Without thinking Angel turned to the door on his left. Somehow he knew that Buffy was on the other side a second before she and Lorne walked in along with two of the other slayers. .

"All right, we're all here," Buffy announced.

"Ah, Dawn isn't," Andrew pointed out.

Buffy pulled out her cell phone. "You hooked up?" she spoke into it.

"I'm here, I'm about five minutes away." As with all cell phones issued by Wolfram & Hart, the reception was crystal clear.

"We can--" started Fred.

"We can't," said Giles. "We've been operating behind schedule for too long; we need to get started _now_." He turned to Wesley. "Let's go."

Wesley looked straight ahead at the high command gathering his thoughts. Then he began. "As you're all probably aware, when Leonard joined us three months ago he claimed that he had foreseen a great battle involving all of us. One which, if we fell, the darkness would overcome us. For the last three months, Rupert, Willow, Fred and myself have been going over the ancient texts and prophecies looking for any evidence that such a battle was looming."

"To be honest, we were hoping that we wouldn't find anything," said Fred. "And we didn't -- until four days ago."

"On that day we obtained a collection of prophecies from a Hittite wise man named Molochi, an ancient oracle who accurately predicted many events thousands of years into the future," said Giles. "Buried among them was a prophecy of destruction so total that no structure built would stand. All the gates of hell would be opened and all foul things would emerge. In his words, the stones would run red with blood."

"Like we've never heard that before," said Gunn calmly.

"And I take it that Ground Zero for this Armageddon is Los Angeles," said Buffy, similarly calm.

"That's correct," Giles replied.

"When?" asked Leonard.

" 'A time when day and night are one.'" Fred said, quoting.

"An equinox," said Angel.

"Wait a minute. Are you saying--" Robin started.

Wesley nodded grimly. "According to our calculations, sometime today, somewhere in Los Angeles, events that could lead to the end of the world will begin."

**12:59:57--- 12:59:58 --- 12:59:59 --- 1:00:00**


	2. 1AM to 2AM

CHAPTER 2

The Following Takes Place Between 1 AM and 2 am

On The Day Of The Autumnal Equinox.

Undisclosed Location

On The Outskirts of Los Angeles

Cabot had been afraid that he would have not been able to find it, despite the fact that it had been exactly where the speaker for the Great One had told him it would be. It hadn't helped that it had taken so long to dig it up. A less single-minded person would have given up hours before but he was a zealot through and through.

He dialed the number that he had been given. It only rang once before he got an answer. "It's Cabot."

"You have the artifact?" asked the man without preamble.

"It was where you said it would be."

Brief silence. "Griffith Park. 1:55 A.M. Be there and you will get what is coming to you." Click.

The speaker was going to pay him a large sum of money for what he was doing. Some people might say that he was getting far too little for what he was about to help bring forth. To him the money was secondary. What mattered was that the Great One came. This was merely a bonus.

He looked towards the city. Under normal circumstances, it would have taken him nearly an hour to get from where he was to Griffith Park. But he had the conviction of the mad and knew that such things as traffic lights and speed bumps would not burden him at all.

He began walking to his motorcycle.

**1:03:12 --- 1:03:13 --- 1:03:14**

Buffy was the first to recover. "So the latest apocalypse is due to arrive on September 21 and we don't have any idea its coming until September 17?"

"That's correct." said Fred.

"I'm trying really hard not to look at you, Wesley," said Buffy, sounding extraordinarily pissed.

"I realize that we came to this late-- " said Wesley.

"Late? Late? "Xander slammed his hand against the table. "True or False: When we took this job one of the arguments for it was that we had access to nearly every prophecy and ancient text ever created."

"That's basically right." Wesley was beginning to appear as flustered as he had when he first dealt with Buffy and her friends.

"So how is it possible that this particular Armageddon almost happened without us knowing it?"

"The attorneys fucked us," said Willow bluntly

Everyone was momentarily struck dumb; Willow almost never used profanity.

"That's basically what they did," Wesley agreed. "They said that we would have access to every prophecy or ancient text ever _written_."

"And how did they mislead us here?" Gunn asked in a tired tone.

"Molochi's work was never written. It was carved," answered Giles, "on dozens of stone tablets. We've spent the last three months using Wolfram & Hart's resources to track them down. If we had been on our own, we'd still be looking for them."

"And the reason it took us four days to learn this was?" asked Angel wearily.

"Much of Molochi's work was written in a degenerate form of Turkish very different from the ancient languages." said Willow. "I had to reprogram many of our translating programs to make it legible."

"So even with all the resources of the most powerful institutions in the world, we still only came out slightly better than if we'd been back in the library," said Buffy bitterly. "God bless modern technology."

"All right, concentrating on the fact that we do have access" Robin said calmly, "do we have any idea of how this apocalypse is going to start?"

"Well," everyone looked toward Fred who began speaking in her scientific reasoning rather than her rambling girl tone, "Molochi expends most of his energy on what the end of the world will look like than why it's ending, but there are some words and phrases which indicate who is going to be involved and what will happen." She looked even grimmer, if that were possible.

"And?" asked Gunn

She took a deep breath. "There are a lot of references…that can only refer to us." Fred stopped. "Well, not me specifically, but Buffy and Angel and, you know -- the ones prophecies get written about."

Buffy and Angel were the least surprised; they had long since gotten used to prophecies involving them.. The others were clearly more than a little bothered by it. "And what is it we are supposed to be doing?" Buffy asked.

"That's just it," said Wesley. "We know it refers to some of us but not who. There is a reference that a woman with great power shall be vital to one side, but…there's a problem with the translation."

"There's a word, 'jasundi', that can mean 'warrior woman' " Willow said " which could mean a Slayer. Or it could mean 'sorceress'-- which could mean me." She sounded a little disturbed at this last possibility. "In the context of the prophecy, it could mean either one."

"And that's not the only one," said Giles. "There is also a reference to the 'somnilera', one who was asleep but is now awake.' The obvious reference is to Buffy, but the way that it's phrased, it could be Faith or maybe someone else entirely. Again, it's not clear."

"But there is a third individual called the 'lakuta,'" said Wesley, "whose presence is important but I'm damned if I know who."

"Another confusing noun?" asked Robin.

"It refers to 'the one who shall decode'. So it's possible it could be referring to one of us, but…we… don't…" Willow trailed off. An expression of pure alarm appeared on her face. "Oh my God."

"What?" asked Wesley.

"The phrase. It also translates to 'one who shall unlock.'"

Fred and Wesley looked confused, but anxiety appeared on Giles' face. And suddenly Buffy realized a fear she had hoped had gone away.

"You're saying--" Giles began.

"-- it could mean 'key,'" said Willow.

The others looked confused. Except for Xander. "Are we saying--"

"It could mean me."

Everyone was caught by surprise. No one had seen Dawn enter the room.

**1:17:25 --- 1:17:26 --- 1:17:27 --- 1:17:28**

Somewhere in Los Angeles

The meeting was in forty minutes but he knew that this call had to be made.

"Thompson?" It wasn't the other man's really named but who cared?"Do you have it?" the voice said without preamble.

"I'm about to make the pick-up. Will you be ready when I have it?"

"We finished our own excavation three hours ago. It will be in your hands by the deadline."

"And the other thing we talked about?"

Pause. "We are making preparations. You will have it when you need it."

"She's not going to like this."

"In that case you'd do well to remind your boss that we all work for the same master, and that all of our interests will be served."

"Just be there on time." He hung up and proceeded to his destination.

Despite all of the discussion that the Sunnydale people had with the LA crowd no one had talked about the full story behind Dawn's existence. This had been mainly because of Dawn's desire to, as she had put it, "not have people look at me like I'm some kind of freak." Because she wanted Dawn to be as comfortable as possible, Buffy had opted not to tell anyone who didn't ask. The rest of them had acquiesced to Buffy's wishes.

As confused discussion filled the room, Willow was beginning to wonder if that had been a good idea. Now there was a whole lot of explaining that had to be done and very little time to do it in. It would also cause Dawn a lot of pain but, sadly, it was low on their list of priorities.

"What do you mean Dawn is 'the Key'? How the hell is that possible?" Gunn demanded. "And don't tell me it's more of that metaphor crap, 'cause I'm getting sick of people being things instead of people."

"Don't call her that." Willow was affronted. "Don't talk about her like she's not in the room. That's exactly what we had wanted to avoid."

"There are stories about this," Wesley said, have seemingly slipped into the kind of "Watcher musing" that Giles had been fond of in the early days. "Stories about objects being converted to human forms to protect their power."

"It's more complicated than that," Giles said. "And you can't think of Dawn that way; it's not fair."

"Look," began Buffy, "I realize that this is an awful lot to lay on you all at once. And I know that it's a very complicated story--"

"The Key was a device used to open the gates of all dimensions. Glory, a powerful hell god and a real mental case, wanted it to return to rule over her home dimension. It was protected for centuries by an order of monks but Glory found them. In order to keep it safe, the monks sent it to Buffy and in order to make sure that she would protect it with her life they made it human -- a sister. They took the memories of Buffy and basically everyone who had been important in Buffy's life and altered them so that no one would know that Dawn had only existed for a few months instead of fifteen years." By now the entire room had shifted their attention from Dawn to Andrew. Who continued to speak calmly. "Dawn had no idea of her own previous existence until four months after Buffy learned about it. The others managed to keep it secret until Tara got drained by Glory. The rest you know." Andrew looked at Buffy who seemed at a complete loss for words. "I leave anything out?" he asked casually.

"How… how…" Buffy stumbled around.

"One month into my project on the history of Sunnydale, I asked Dawn to explain what her role was in the whole Glory affair," Andrew said calmly. "It wasn't an easy conversation to have but she got through it like -- and I'm using the correct word when I say this -- a champion. Her only request was that I not tell this story until it was absolutely necessary. I think this qualifies, right Dawn?"

"I won't pretend" sounds like you, not Andy.

Dawn was looking at Andrew with a level of admiration that not normally associate with the young nerd. "I'd say it does. Thank you."

Buffy recovered from her shock and confusion. "I know that this is a lot to put on everybody right now and that we don't have time to deal with this, but we need to get past it if we're going to handle whatever it is that's coming our way." She turned to Giles. "What else does the prophecy say?"

Giles, who had managed to collect himself after the interruption, began again: "Like all prophecies it is extremely general but there are three critical people who will play vital roles in the events of the day: the jasundi, the somnilera and the lakuta Assuming that they are who we think they are, they will play a crucial role involving the 'malefactum'', the great evil force that shall try to overrun the earth."

"And this great evil force is?" asked Angel.

"Again the details are sketchy but," Wesley explained, "if the prophecies are to be believed, whoever's behind this shall attempt to summon two forces that will help bring about the fall of man. These rituals are time dependent. If they are not completed at the exact time, the malefactum will not be able to be raised -- at least not for several hundred years."

"These rituals: do we have a place and time?" Buffy asked.

"We're not sure where, but they are very time specific," Fred said. "The first one, the 'dysoniptia' can only be performed at the crack of dawn. The second, the 'eutrasia' must be done when 'the sun and the earth are halfway through their journey.' That means it has to be done at 12 noon."

"As if traffic at the lunch counter wasn't bad enough," said Xander. "Am I the only one who thinks that these are awfully weird times to be having dark rituals?"

"It does seem a bit odd," agreed Giles. "The blackest rituals have almost always been associated with darkness. To have them occurring in the light of day, one wonders what that say about the nature of this evil to begin with."

"So what, now we're thinking that this thing is actually pretty good as evil things are?" said Gunn.

"No, it's definitely bad. " Leonard spoke for the first time.

Willow asked, "Do you remember something else from the vision you had?"

"I don't know anything new but I do know one thing for sure."

"What's that?" asked Willow.

"The vision I had, the battle I saw all of you fighting and losing -- it was dark out. Night had definitely fallen. I don't know if it was something the evil had caused or whether you had somehow failed in stopping this 'raising' thing from happening but come the night you will be fighting this thing."

There was a long pause. "Well, then there's only one thing to do," Buffy siad.

Everyone knew what she was going to say but they waited for her to say it anyway.

"We have to stop these raisings."

**1:32:39 --- 1:32:40 --- 1:32:41 --- 1:32:42**

"Of course we're going to stop these raisings," Xander said trying as he usually did to stay upbeat. "I've only got one tiny question."

"How are we going to stop them if we don't know where they're taking place?" Robin asked. "Kind of on my mind too."

"Do we know anything about where they have to take place or what is needed for them to be performed?" asked Buffy.

"Hell, do we even know who's going to be doing all this or is it just that great mass of evil that seems to come together every year or so?" Gunn was starting to sound frustrated again.

"Most dark rituals don't need to be performed in any specific place unless they involve something specific from it-- a graveyard or a church, for example." Giles was starting to go into lecture mode. "If you're inventive enough a person can perform a blood ritual in a cafeteria."

"Great." Now Lorne spoke up for the first time." So that narrows the location to basically anywhere in L.A.. " He put his head in his hands. "Please tell m we have at least some ideas on the how and the who."

"_We _actually have a pretty good idea as to one group that will probably play a major role in whatever events are coming today," Wesley said, turning to his left. "Fred?"

Fred adjusted her glasses as she usually did when she was nervous. "Beyond the fact that it's a great evil, we don't know much about the malefactum. However, we do know that there are several cults, demon and human-based alike, that want to see this particular evil triumph. And according to our computers there are at least three based in Los Angeles."

"Los Angeles wouldn't happen to have its own Hellmouth, would it?" Xander had gotten everyone's attention, a rare occurrence for him. "I'm just saying there's an awful lot of demon traffic even for a city as diverse as L.A."

"No Hellmouths, but there are a lot of places where the atmosphere around this dimension gets a little thin." said Lorne.

"That's what draws the big E here." said Xander thoughtfully.

"It's also one of the reasons that its so easy to open a hole in this reality," Fred said, reflecting a little.

"Can we get back to the point?" Angel was starting to sound impatient, but he had a good reason. "Fred, these cults, where exactly are they?"

She gathered herself. "Giles used some of his contacts still with the old Watchers and Wesley talked with some friends he's made over the past few months. If their information is reliable, one mostly human cult is operating in Inglewood, one mostly demon is in a housing project in Santa Monica and one is operating just outside of Glendale."

"Now all of these cults are very dangerous," said Wesley, "but we believe that this last one, the Brotherhood of the Crucible, is most likely to be involved in the rituals we have discussed are in this last one. It's the only one that has both vampires and demons. Part of the rituals say that both the blood of man and demon be shed in order for the raisings to take place."

"Also vampires and demons of any genus are well known to be very resistant to the concept of working together." said Giles.

"If this cult has managed to adhere to this foreign concept, then they must be determined to bringing the malefactum forth."

"Anything that brings vampires and demons together you can count on being pretty high on the bad shit-o-meter." said Gunn. "Pretty much a given that it will be bad for anything that isn't evil."

"All right, before we decide to start chasing after vampire cults, do we have any idea what they're going to need to bring about this great evil?" asked Buffy. "Blood's going to spill no matter what happens but I'd prefer to not have a larger body count than we need."

"Yeah, is there anyway that we can be proactive?" said Faith.

Willow looked at Faith. "Proactive?" she said a little confused.

Faith made a face. "I'm using those word-a-day calendars. Can we move on?"

"Again, the prophecies are very vague," said Willow. "They talk about things such as a ring or a medallion but there isn't enough detail to figure out what exactly they're talking about. Others are specific but are located in places like Iran and India that we'd have trouble getting to by the end of the day even with all of our connections. "

"Which basically leaves us with one real possibility: the band of Tarquin." said Giles. "According to our research, it is a glove capable of withstanding the fires of Hell itself."

"Like we haven't heard that before." Said Xander.

"Hyperbole aside, it is an instrument of enormous importance to the first ritual. We know that its probably on the outskirts of L.A. itself. " Giles turned to the big computer screen in the center of the room. "Willow?"

The young witch walked over to the computer and began pushing buttons. "We've pinned its location down to within a radius of three square miles in this part of the city." A section of a suburb of the city -- mostly empty land -- came up on the screen.

"We're sure that none of these cults have managed to get a hold of it yet?" Buffy asked.

"As far as we know."

Outskirts of L.A.

Fritz knew what he was supposed to do and where he was supposed to do it. Therefore the message on his pager was simple.

BEGIN.

Having received word, he went to the place his comrade had finished digging, took out the device that he had been given and began to shovel.

**1:46:22 --- 1:46:23 --- 1:46:24 --- 1:46:25**

"All right. Now that we've located where we have to go, I think that we need to decide who were sending where," said Angel. "Unless there is something else you haven't told us."

"Actually, there is one more thing." said Wesley. " Fred? Willow?"

The two young women began typing on the keyboards rapidly for about thirty seconds before turning beck to Wesley. "Are we secure?" he asked in a tone he had used during his stint as head of Angel Investigations.

"For the next ten minutes," Willow said. She sounded a little nervous. "But keep this as brief as possible."

"What's all this about?" said Gunn.

"Every room in Wolfram & Hart has some form of video and audio surveillance. Willow and Fred just closed their eyes and ears-- for a while anyway." said Wesley. He took a deep breath. "All right. As all of you know, despite their promise to stay out of our way it is clear that the senior partners of Wolfram & Hart have been working, directly or indirectly, to undermine our efforts to do good. Those in charge have to have known about this apocalypse and they made sure that we didn't have access to the relevant texts until it was almost too late."

"You just said that we wouldn't have found out about it without their help," Faith reminded him.

"We know how these people operate." said Fred. "It is very possible that they would help us with one hand while blocking our efforts with another."

"So what you're basically saying is that the people in this building –" said Buffy, "the ones who came with the law firm -- might be working against us."

"We're almost certain of it," said Giles

"Jesus!" sputtered Xander. "Why didn't you tell us this before the meeting started? Don't you think it would have been better for them to not know where we're going?"

Willow looked at Xander. "They don't."

"Uh, what did we just spend forty minutes discussing?" asked Lorne.

"We're going to follow through with what we talked about." admitted Wesley. "What we didn't talk about is what we're going to discuss now." He turned towards Fred.

"Since we found out about this end-of-days scenario we decided that someone in the building must have some link to one of these cults. Willow and I…well, we've been working on a modified computer access program that reads the emails of any body who isn't…one of the good guys."

"It's good to know that our morality hasn't shifted in the time we've been working for the Dark Side of the Force," Xander said sarcastically.

"We developed this program from something we found after some work of our own," said Willow. "After we learned they'd been doing it to us."

"Oh," said Xander sheepishly. "Never mind."

"Anyway we found an-email from a man named Jerrod Watkins in accounting -- who didn't come into work today and isn't answering his phone -- that spoke of a coming Armageddon," Willow said. "It didn't mean anything until we checked and found out that he was a frequent visitor to a website devoted to the worship of Nathi, one of the Hittite gods."

"And this is important because…?" Buffy asked.

"In his last visit to that site -- which was less than twenty-four hours ago --" Wesley said, "the webmaster said that they would soon have the last _two _artifacts needed to complete the first ritual. Not only had they pinned down the location of the Band of Tarquin, but they also had just received word that the Stone of Meligan was being delivered to screen name Rev68 sometime today."

"Do we know who this Rev68 is?" asked Angel.

Willow shook her head. "There was nothing under the screen name except his email address. We tracked it back to a warehouse in North Hollywood. It's been abandoned for two years."

"Which makes it as good a place as any to hide this stone," said Buffy. "We'd better get there fast."

"Hold on," Giles started, "Buffy, you shouldn't go."

"Excuse me?"

Looked a little flustered, Giles carried on, "If we send you out looking for the stone, Wolfram & Hart will realize that we're on to their plans."

"He's right," said Angel. "It would tip our hand."

"So who do we send?"

There was silence for a few seconds before Faith stepped forward. "Put me in, coach."

"I'd argue but we have barely a minute left before they tap back in," said Willow.

"All right," said Angel. "We can't use one of their cars so we'll use mine. Who's driving?"

"I'll do it." There was a murmur of surprise when Andrew stepped forward. "No one will notice me if I disappear."

For a moment Angel looked like he might protest, then finally threw his keys to Andrew. "Don't scratch it," he said quietly

Andrew caught the keys in a relatively clean grab. He and Faith walked out the door side by side.

"All right? How do we handle the rest of it?"

Griffith Park

**1:56:43 --- 1:56:44--- 1:56:45**

Cabot figured that he would be kept waiting. The delay was a short one -- less than a minute -- but he knew that this was a delaying tactic used to exert control.

The car, an old blue Buick, pulled up. Two men, in a loose sense of the term, stepped out. One was a vampire -- the smell of the dead was on him. But it was the human whom he feared more. The human was stronger and far more dangerous.

"You have the Band?" the man he knew as Harvey asked without preamble.

"It's right here."

"Let's see it." The vampire was impatient.

"The money." He was firm.

Harvey took out a suitcase and opened it. In it was more money than he had seen in his life.

He managed to keep his voice level. "It's all there?"

"Would you like to count it?" The slightest bit of sarcasm entered his tone.

Cabot took out the Band of Tarquin and placed it on the car hood. "You are honorable men," Cabot said.

"Yes, that's an annoying quirk of these cults. They believe in that whole code of chivalry nonsense. These are indeed honorable men."

Cabot sensed the vampires movement a split second before it happened. He dodged it and reached for the knife that he kept in his boot. Though he was not a Slayer, he fought well for a man. They exchanged blows until he managed to sink the wooden hilt of the blade through the vampires heart. It exploded in a pile of dust.

He raised his fist in triumph--until he heard the bang. He looked down as saw that he had been shot in the stomach.

"I, however," said Harvey grimly, "am not so honorable."

Cabot fell the ground. The last thing he saw was Harvey standing over him with a gun in his hand. The last thing he heard was his voice.

"Be seeing you."

**1:59:57 --- 1:59:58 --- 1:59:59 --- 2:00:00**


	3. 2AM to 3AM

Chapter 3

The Following Takes Place Between 2 A.M and 3 A.M.

On The Autumnal Equinox

"All right. Just so we're all clear," Wesley said to the room, "Gunn and Willow are going to check out the cult in Inglewood. Buffy and Lorne are going to Santa Monica to check out the cult there. Angel and I are going to investigate the Brotherhood in Glendale. Robin and Rupert are going to Hansen Dam Park where we think the Band of Tarquin is."

"The rest of you are going to set up a sort of central command throughout the building," said Buffy. "Fred, Xander, for now you're both in charge. I'm putting an immense amount of trust and pressure on you. Can you guys handle this?"

Fred seemed about to give a long response, took a deep breath and thought better of it. "I have to." She looked around. "Those of us in the building, how much should we let the Wolfram & Hart people in on what's happening today?".

There was a moment of reflection before Angel finally answered. "Like it or not, we're going to have trust the staff here to a certain extent. However, be careful. If possible, use any resource that they provide for us with as few Wolfram & Hart employees as possible."

"And we manage that by…" Dawn asked.

Wesley turned to the others. "We've got about sixty Slayers and Watchers in training right now. I think it's about time they started earning their salaries. Does everyone have their cell phones?" Everyone affirmed except for Angel. Wes rolled his eyes. "_I'll_ handle the calls for us. The rest of you keep in constant contact with the building. The only way we're going to be able to stop this thing is if we all work together."

"This is important even for those of us who aren't here," Giles said. "Understand?" He didn't want to have to mention Faith and Andrew out loud.

"We'll keep track of everybody. Even the people who aren't here," Fred said. "Well, not the people who aren't here at least not until you get here, and…."

"Fred," said Wesley gently. "We don't have the luxury of time for your-- well, doing what you do some time. Can you handle that as well?"

There was a pause. "I'll do it," she said simply.

"One last thing." said Buffy. "Leonard." The young man looked at her. "A day like today I'm pretty sure that the Powers are going to send you a couple of messages."

"You never know." Leonard spoke with the barest trace of a smile appearing on his face. "They might be taking the day off. Maybe that's why there's a crisis in the first place. "

"There is that possibility." Giles agreed.

Buffy shot him a look of surprise. "There something you want to talk about?" she asked him

Giles thought it over. "Not now, no."

Buffy looked at Giles a second longer and then turned back to Leonard. "But if they send any visions your way, it is absolutely critical that you get a hold of us immediately. Willow?"

The young witch took out a cell phone. "Special issue. Press one of the four buttons on the top; you'll immediately be connected with somebody from each group. If the vision involves any of us…"

"I'll be sure you're jacked in." Now Leonard spoke seriously.

"Anything else?" Buffy asked. She waited ten seconds for somebody to object. When no one did, she turned around. "Let's go."

Everybody started moving out. Despite the silence Wesley knew that there was at least one issue that had to be faced, if not dealt with immediately. "Angel." The vampire turned for a second without slowing down. "There is one thing that we didn't mention that we will have to face if we're not successful in stopping this quickly."

The vampire gave a sigh. "Now what?"

"Sunrise is in less than four hours."

"I know that Wes. When the sun comes up is an issue that I pay close attention to."

"Then you've already found a way to deal with the problem that we're going to face if they get the materials they need for either of the raisings." said Wesley.

Angel hesitated for a fraction of a second. "Are there any eclipses scheduled for today?"

"No."

"No freak snowstorms?"

Wesley was baffled but decided to let that pass. "No."

"Do we have any Gems of Amara handy?"

"The Gem of Amara?" For a moment Wesley found himself amazed. "But that's-- I mean that was just an-- It really exists?"

"It did, I had it, I destroyed it. Could we get back to reality?" Angel asked impatiently.

"No, there was only one."

"Then no, I haven't found any way to deal with the sun coming up today." He paused. "Actually, there is one thing that might stop it."

"What?"

"Dr. Gregory."

It took Wesley several seconds to place the name of the doctor who had a special 'cure' for vampires. When he realized what Angel was talking about he realized it was still possible for him to be shocked by some things. "No," he said hurriedly.

"It would keep me…"

"No!"

"I would be able to fight past the dawn."

"For a few more hours! Angel, you can't even consider this."

"I have to think of the bigger picture."

"So do we! How will we deal with the next Armageddon without you? We need our champion!"

"Then you'd better hope that we can stop this thing in four hours," Angel stated, walking. "Because if we can't I'm leaving in three."

Wesley considered all this. He knew that Angel was serious. He would give his life for the cause without regard to the costs. And there really wasn't anything he could do about it except…

He started running after Angel, hoping it wouldn't come to this.

**2:13:39--- 2:13:40 --- 2:13:41--- 2:13:42**

Because he knew L.A. a lot better than Willow did, Gunn was driving. They had taken the Mazda Miata figuring that it wouldn't stand out as much in Inglewood. Like all the cars that the team at Angel-Slayer had taken possession of at Wolfram & Hart there was a small arsenal in the back seat. Gunn had called for the crossbow and was a little surprised when Willow said she didn't need any weapons. "I know my strengths" she had told him " and the truth is weapons would just hold me back."

For anyone else Gunn would have thought this was a lot of misplaced confidence but he had seen Willow in her element. He knew the power that she held.

Now, as they drove up to the projects, Gunn wished that he knew a little more about what they were getting into at least as far as this cult.

"So back in Sunnydale did you ever have to handle anything like this?" he asked her.

"You mean a bunch of human lunatics bent on the destruction of the world?" Willow asked.

Gunn nodded.

"Not really. There were some humans who were bent on bringing about Armageddon but they mostly had a lot of demon followers. If there were any in Sunnydale they stayed out of our way."

"Hmm. Of course there are a lot of real religious groups who believe in the approaching apocalypse, but—"

"—they usually end up drinking Kool-Aid and waiting for comets to do a fly-by. Yeah." Willow said.

"Think that's what we're going to find here?" asked Gunn.

"I don't know." Willow's tone was reflective. "I'm not entirely sure what we're going to do: spy on them, talk with them or fight with them."

"I guess we'll have to play it by ear." Gunn pulled the car up to a block of houses. "OK. This is where we get out?"

Willow looked at the sign. "It's where the computer told us to go. They're a few houses up. Let's walk the rest of the way."

They got out of the car and quickly walked down the street. Halfway there Gunn stopped. "Well, I guess that's our first clue."

The house that they were supposed to go was about a hundred yards away and there were definitely signs of activity. Just not the kind that they had been expecting. Every light in the house was on and you could hear loud music. Gunn was pretty sure that it was Black Sabbath. Furthermore, there was nobody guarding the door. In fact the door was slightly ajar. It sounded like there was a party in full swing.

Of course none of that by itself told Gunn and Willow that this was where the cult was. The sign which said: "MALEFACTUM'S COMING BABY! PARTY ALL NIGHT BEFORE THE BIG RAISING!" was the big hint.

Willow and Gunn looked at each other. "And that's why there's no city in the world like L.A." said Gunn.

"I guess the whole secret spying isn't really necessary," Willow replied. "Let's see if we can get a closer look."

They walked up to a window on the side of the house.

There was a big party going on-- it looked like there were fifty or sixty people squeezed into one of the rooms. And for the most part they looked completely normal. There were a few people wearing what might be considered ceremonial robes but mostly they were all dressed very casually. Furthermore, even though this was a black part off town there were just as many white faces as black ones. That gave his Gunn his first real sign of unease. He knew about the racial problems in his city. And he knew that it usually took some powerful and dangerous forces to bring people of such different backgrounds together.

"I can feel it coming in the air tonight." said Willow.

After a beat, Gunn said: "Oh lord." They both smiled.

"Seriously" Gunn said, looking through the window, "there's some real weird mojo around here."

"I know."

"You feel it too?"

"Yeah. Well that and the pentagram that's been carved in the wall."

A second after she spoke Gunn saw it too. He also saw some other things that we're disturbing. In addition to the pentagram, there were a lot of signs and symbols drawn in something that was almost certainly blood. And lying on a card table next to the punchbowl were two ceremonial knives both stained with blood.

"The only thing that could make this party kinkier is if they start playing the Village People," Gunn said grimly.

"Probably comes later in the evening," Willow said as she started walking to the door.

"You're not going in there."

Willow fixed Gunn with a stern look. "We're supposed to be gathering information on the raisings. Well here is a mother lode."

"That doesn't mean… You shouldn't…. You'd stick out like a sore thumb."

Again Willow fixed him with a look. "I'm a twenty something girl with a background in Wicca. I think I'm more their type than yours. Besides, who's more likely to be able to handle a roomful of these people?"

Gunn was going to fight her but realized they didn't have the time and she was probably right. "Just do me one favor."

"If I can."

"Don't drink the punch."

"Never crossed my mind."

**2:24:48 --- 2:24:49 -- 2:24:50 -- 2:24:51**

North Hollywood

Faith hadn't been as surprised as the rest of the Angel-Slayer board about Andrew's volunteering to drive her into danger. More than anyone else she knew that Angel was a lot tougher than they gave him credit for being. She also knew from personal experience that it took a long time to erase first and even second impressions of a person. They would probably come around but it would take time-- assuming that they survived today of course.

"So how many apocalypses does this make for you?"

Andrew's question surprised Faith. She thought for half a minute. "I think its three or four, depending on how much you count what I did in L.A. I was mainly trying to save Angel; stopping Beastie boy was sort of a side thing," She reflected. "You?"

"This is only the second for me," he said. "And considering all the energy that it took to handle number one, I'm really not looking forward to the sequel. Those are always worse than the first one."

"Hear that." She then asked the question she really didn't want the answer to: "How bad do you think this one will be?"

"On a scale of 1 to 10?"

She nodded.

"We're in deep shit. " Off her look Andrew added: "Keep in mind I haven't read as many prophecies as Giles or Wesley or even Dawn, but this one seems to have them really spooked."

That did concern Faith. She knew that the others having been former Watchers caused them to be concerned or alarmed at minor things. But if they were _afraid…_

Andrew pulled up at the corner. "According to the address they gave us, it's about a block away. You better get out now."

"You're not coming?"

Andrew gave a half-smile. "I think we both know that I would only hold you back."

Faith wanted to argue but she knew that, for all his improvements as a fighter and as a person, he was right. "You got your cell phone?"

"Yeah. You know how to work yours?" It was a legitimate question; she had never owned one before coming to work for Angel-Slayer. She nodded. "Go. If something goes wrong I got your back."

"You know how lame you sounded when you said that?" she asked with a half-smile.

"I don't care. I've always wanted to say that to someone. Go."

With that Faith was off and running.

She had a mission. Find out if the cultists or demons or whoever had this stone. If they did and a reasonable opportunity existed grab it. They had not, however, talked about the use of lethal force, something she had been very concerned with since she had gotten out of jail. She didn't mind killing demons, but people, even evil ones, were still something of a gray area for her. She knew that these were desperate times but she wasn't thrilled with the possibility.

Before she could work this out, she realized that she had made it to the warehouse. She ducked into the shadows and did a brief visual survey. Very quickly it became clear that something not quite right was going on. The warehouse had supposedly been abandoned for two years. So why was there a light in one of the windows on the ground floor?

She risked moving a little closer. There was a man in the lit room. She didn't dare risk looking much closer but she didn't see jewelry of any form or boxes that might have it. The Stone of Mulligan (or whatever the hell it was) might be here but Faith just couldn't tell.

She backed her way around to the other side of the warehouse. There was a beat-up old Citroen that might have been new around the time Faith was going to grade school. She assumed that it was the man's car but couldn't imagine him-- or anybody below a certain income bracket-- driving it. She looked in the car just to be safe. Nothing there to tell her where the stone of Meligan (that's it, she thought) was or for that matter who the man in the warehouse was.

She had just about made it back to the front when she heard a motor rev. She looked forward just in time to see another car pull up: a green Chevy that looked only marginally newer than the car in the back.

"I guess the rule that the villains drive sweet cars is not in effect," she said to herself as she watched it pull up. Hoping that she was out of sight, she tried to get a good look at the driver. It didn't help: she didn't recognize the woman.

The man walked outside. "You were supposed to be here twenty minutes ago," he said by way of a greeting.

"You're directions were pretty crappy. Besides it's not like I was in a hurry to come."

"You'll be glad that you did. This is pretty big."

The two walked into the warehouse. Faith began moving closer, staying in the shadows.

**2:35:25 --- 2:35:26 --- 2:35:27 --- 2:35:28**

Glendale

Wesley and Angel had only spoken once since getting in the car. Angel had asked what Wesley had been talking about when he had put in a call to Fred a minute after they hit the road.

Wesley had been unusually short. "Leave it for now."

"Hey, you're the one who decided to call Fred and put her on whatever this is."

"It's rather complicated and I'm not entirely sure that it will work. In the meantime I think you were right: better to concentrate on the battle just ahead."

Angel had been about to tell Wes that he didn't need to go through with this, that there was only one real option and he was going to go through with it. But he knew all the arguments that Wesley would make, and they did need to concentrate on what was ahead. So he had shut up.

Now as they pulled up, two blocks away from the address, something nasty occurred to Angel. Something that would probably complicate things: "Wesley, the dionysyia….

"'Dysonipta'." Wesley corrected.

"Whatever. It calls for the for the shedding of blood of both man and demon, right?" When Wesley nodded he went on: " Well, like you mentioned before, the ritual starts at dawn. How are they going to get blood from a giant pile of ash?"

Wesley thought for a second. "They can't. And if they could get past that particular obstacle the vampires wouldn't be involved."

"Why cause the world to end when you can control it?" Angel said grimly. "I know I would think twice about it."

"So if the vampires aren't involved in that part of the sacrifice, what are they going to do?" Wesley began to think to himself.

"Are you sure that there was nothing in the prophecies about them blocking the sun?"

"Positive. The sun has to be rising for the first ritual to work. There's something that we're clearly missing."

"Then we might as well try asking someone in the know." By now the two of them had reached the address. To the both their surprise it appeared to be a bar.

"All right. How do you want to play this?" Wesley asked.

"Well, we've got to assume that we've got a reputation by now, so I guess playing possum is out." Angel thought. "Our best bet is probably the direct approach."

"Throw open the door, start hitting people, see who speaks?" Wesley guessed.

Angel nodded.

"Works for me."

"All right." Angel prepared to fight.

Wesley took out a sword and one of the guns he had become partial to. "One…. Two… Three!"

Angel flung the door open and strode into the bar.

And saw the last face that he would have expected to see.

"Holy mackerel! Did you die in a barn? That's no way to come into a respectable establishment…" Willy's voice petered out as he saw who was at the door. "Angel?

**2:45:07 --- 2:45:08 --- 2:45:09 --- 2:45:10**

Santa Monica

Lorne had come from a demon dimension that, though not on a level with the Quor-Toth, was pretty unpleasant. He had seen his place of business violated by a portal, the subject of home invasion and finally blown up. In the past six months, he had seen the sky rain fire, the sun blotted out and had taken more blows to the head than he would have thought possible.

None of this, however, unnerved him as much as being in a car when Buffy Summers was behind the wheel.

"You know our being able to stop this apocalypse—" he said as they went down the wrong way down a one-way street "--kinda depends on us getting there alive."

"Hey it's not my fault. You try reading street signs at two in the morning." She turned towards Lorne, as she said it.

"Eyes on the road! Eyes on the road!" he cried franticly.

Fortunately Buffy went back to looking straight ahead in time to avoid a lamppost. "I don't know why you're in such a hurry to get there. When we arrive we're probably going to be neck deep in demons."

Lorne breathed a sigh of relief as she finally came to a stop. "Right now that seems less dangerous."

Buffy shot him a stern look. "Fine if you can explain to a cop what you're doing behind the wheel, _you _can drive."

As they got out of the car Lorne asked: "How is it that you managed to get your drivers license renewed here?"

Again Buffy fixed him with a glare. "On some things I do well under pressure . Now could we please focus on something else?" She turned her head again. "Like the vampire that's about to attack us?"

Lorne whirled around five seconds before the vampire reached the two. He had time to think _Man, Slayers have great vision_ before the vampire was upon them.

Buffy, who was faster and had better reflexes, started fighting the moment the vampire reached them. It took her a good ten seconds to beat him up, knock him down and dust him. Which would have been fine…if Lorne hadn't seen a flock of undead running at them. He readied the crossbow that he had brought with him. "Buffy."

The slayer looked up and winced as she saw what was coming. "You know, maybe we should have parked further away."

"We'll do a play-by-play when we finish this batch," Lorne said with more confidence then he felt.

**2:50:33 --- 2:50:34 --- 2:50:35**

"What the hell did you do to get a place here?" Angel was still having a hard time believing what he was seeing.

"Hey, when those weird priests and those ugly looking vamps started to walk the streets, I figured it was time to get the hell out of Dodge," Willy said with a nervous smile. "So I moved here. City of dreams and all that stuff. And it worked. Three months and I got this place. Not too shabby, huh?"

Wesley was all business: "Yeah, the décor's wonderful. Why is the Brotherhood of the Crucible working out of this bar?"

"Hey I don't allow any of those dark cults set up here," Willy protested. "This is a respectable establishmennnnnn--"

The bartender was cut off by Angel nearly pulling him over the bar. None of the customers-- mostly undead by the smell-- raised a protest or offered to help. Yeah, they were Willy's kind of clientele .

"Look Willy-boy, this is a very bad day to jerk us around. We don't have time for any of your bullshit, so I'm going to give you ten seconds for you to start telling me about the Brotherhood. If you don't I'm gonna channel some of the rage I have left over from the time you set me up to get bled by Spike. Got it?!"

Willy nodded frantically.

After another five seconds Angel let him go. "Now."

"Look, you gotta understand these end-of-the world types are fatalistic, but they're more than willing to pay cash in advance," Willy sputtered nervously. "I need to make a living, and--"

"Five…four…three…" said Angel.

"All right, all right! There are like fifteen or twenty of these nuts. They come in here after their mystical meetings to have O negative and the complimentary cheese twists."

"What do they talk about?" Wesley asked.

Scared as he was, Willy fixed him with a sneer. "World peace and save-the-whales? What do you think?"

"Not a good time to get cute Willy." Angel made as if he was about to grab him again.

"They talk about bringing about the end-times. Big deal. Back in Sunnydale they were always two or three demon types talking about it." Willy lowered his voice: "But these creeps, they sound like they mean it. They say they intend to awaken the Great One. That the signs are all in place, that the stones have revealed the date, that they have what they need to wake the beast."

"What is the beast?"

"All I know is that it's some great monster, something so old that it can't be named. You know, the same old shit that they put out with every nasty that's ever been hatched."

Normally Angel would have dismissed it as well, but he had spent a good part of last year fighting something exactly like that. "Wesley, do you think that it could be… It couldn't be… Jasmine?"

Wesley seemed more than a little bothered by the concept. "But you saw her die."

"I saw Darla die too. Didn't stop them from bringing her back." Angel whirled back towards Willy. "How they are going to do it? Who's involved? What do they need to raise her?"

" 'Who put the bop in bop-she-bop?'" The new voice was coldly sarcastic. Angel knew before he turned around that it was a vampire. "If you're going to ask stupid questions, at least you could sing them."

One vampire by himself wouldn't have worried Angel. The problem was that there had been five others that had appeared while he and Wesley were concentrating on Willy. And there were a couple of demons. Angel thought that they were Lubbers. The situation had gone from bad to 'we are in serious trouble' within a few minutes.

"So you're the ones trying to bring about the end of the world," said Wesley.

"And you're the vampire with a soul and his English bitch trying to stop the big bad from bringing about the end of the world." The head vampire walked toward them. "Want to take odds on what happens next?"

"I don't bet on sure things." No way to retreat. Only one way to play this. Angel swung at him

And the wild rumpus started.

**2:59:57 --- 2:59:58 --- 2:59:59 --- 3:00:00**


	4. 3AM to 4 AM

Chapter 4

The following takes place between 3 A.M. and 4 A.M. on the autumnal equinox.

In his nearly 250 years Angel had learned some hard and fast rules about brawls. The first and most relevant was: "If the room is against you, you're screwed." He had started the brawl because he knew that there wasn't any way out, but he had been pretty certain when he did that the odds weren't in his favor.

For starters, with the exception of Wesley, no one in the bar was likely to help him-- and Wes had his hands full already. (Willy had demonstrated the courage he had in the past by ducking behind the bar.) But it wasn't just the math which was against him; it was the geography. The vampires and demons would have been difficult to take on had they been fighting in an open space -- in close quarters it was nearly impossible. Angel thought as hard as he could but the space and the numbers finally overwhelmed him minutes after the fight had started.

Three of the vampires grabbed Angel and lifted him to his feet while being sure he couldn't get free. The alpha vampire, whom Angel had swung on, walked up to him. He looked around: "Where's the Watcher?" he growled.

"Slippery bastard got away, Duke," said one of the smaller flunkies. "Guess those rumors about his hating you are true." he said to Angel before turning back to the leader "Wyatt and Cuthbert went after him. He won't get far."

Duke turned towards Angel. "Your friend's lucky. Once we find him, bang he's dead. You on the other hand, are going to be wishing for death by the time when we're done." He yelled at the others: "Come on, we've got to hurry."

They began walking out the door, Duke standing slightly ahead of the three vampires who had Angel in an iron grasp.

Angel was mentally preparing himself to get free. There was a very good chance that it would kill him, but he preferred being dust to helping these bastards.

Suddenly they stopped moving and Angel heard a low voice say. "Get ready." The other vampires heard it too, turned around and began laughing.

If he had been Angelus instead of Angel, he might have laughed too. The sight of a grown man-- even one as dark-looking as Wesley -- holding a gun on a group of vampires could only strike the undead as hysterical. A vampire leaped toward him, still laughing after Wes had fired. He was still smiling as he disintegrated into dust.

The vampires laughter disappeared and was replaced with paralyzing shock. It only lasted seconds, but it was long enough for Wes to start shooting the others. The vampires holding Angel loosened their grip, enough for him to break free and tackle one to the ground. By the time he had staked him, the other vampires and demons were dust or had ran away-- except for Duke. Wesley had shot him in the leg and was now standing over him.

Angel got over to him. Even though he had an idea of what happened, he was as surprised as the others to seeing it in action. "What the fuck was that?"

" Special issue from Fred." said Wes putting in a fresh clip.

" Silver sheathed bullets with wooden tips. Capable of killing a vampire quickly or slowly depending on where you get shot." He pointed the gun at Duke. " Get the picture?"

Duke knew the score and that he was probably dust. "What do you want to know?"

"You can start by telling us what you and your friends in the Brotherhood are raising today." said Angel

Duke looked confused. "What raising? We're not raising anything."

"You're going to bring about the destruction of the world but you don't know the details?" said Wesley sarcastically.

"Hey, we're just supposed to show up when it starts today. It's the demons in the Brotherhood are going to do the raising." When Wesley raised the gun, he spoke anxiously: "I'm telling the truth! They say it's going to be this morning. How the hell am I going to do anything in the middle of the day?"

That sounded honest so Angel said, "All right. Who's the big boss in charge?"

"I don't know; I've never met him."

Again Wesley raised the gun.

"He hasn't met with any of us." Duke sounded positively frantic now. "Always sends a guy to talk for him. Only a few of us have met the real boss."

"All right, who's this flunky and how do we find him?" asked Wesley.

"A human. British like you. Calls himself Harvey. I don't know where he lives but he usually meets us at Griff--

As Duke said the word 'meets' Angel heard a sound from across the alley. He had just enough time to pull Wesley down before the crossbow bolt hit him. Duke was so intent on his tale that he didn't know what was happened until the bolt pierced his chest. He never finished the address as he exploded into a pile of dust.

By the time Angel and Wesley ran towards where they thought the shooter had come from, whoever it was had gone.

**3:09:18 --- 3:09:19 --- 3:09:20 --- 3:09:21**

Santa Monica

It had taken Buffy and Lorne nearly twenty minutes to cut a swath through the vampires. It took Buffy an average of two minutes to kill a vampire or three to kill a demon. (One of the advantages of working for Wolfram & Hart was that you could find people who were willing to go almost anywhere for the most minor things. Clocking killing speed was the least of them) These vampires, however, had fought a lot harder and better than the average.

Now, as she managed to dispatch the last of the demons, she began to think of the problems that this could mean for her and the rest of the team.

"There are two things that could be going on here," Buffy said. "One, I'm off my game and its taking me longer than usual to kill these demons."

"Or these were tougher than usual," Lorne suggested as he put his battle-ax away. "Please tell me you were just going easy on them."

Buffy shook her head.

"Great. Have I mentioned how much fun I'm not having?"

"Well it gets better. Now we have to go inside their clubhouse." They were now about twenty feet away from a rickety looking building. Actually, building was a kind word for the place: it appeared to be a restaurant that hadn't been too high class before it had been abandoned. In other words, the ideal vamp nest.

"Wonderful. We've just killed ten monsters, we're going in to face more and we don't even get the benefit of a 1-up." Lorne looked at Buffy. "Please tell me we're going to call for backup."

Buffy thought it over. "Go around back. Check and see if there's a back door."

Lorne ran as quickly as he possibly could. He returned a minute later. "There's a door they must have used for delivery."

"Do you think that whoever's left was smart enough to run away when they saw me coming?"

Lorne thought for a few seconds before he shook his head. "There's something that they're protecting. They didn't get themselves killed for the exercise."

Buffy thought again. "Stay here and guard the front door. If something comes out…"

"…ask them if they'd like a Seabreeze, I get it. " Lorne said in about as grim a tone as he used. "Where are you going?"

"Seeing if you can find good help at three in the morning." Buffy started walking around to the back, taking out her cell phone as she went.

**3:15:45 --- 3:15:46 --- 3:15:47**

Angel-Slayer Inc.

It had taken nearly forty minutes to call in ten junior Slayers and twenty apprentice Watchers. Part of the reason it took such a long time was that Dawn had had a brainstorm that almost made Fred ashamed of her own supposed intellect.

"We're going to have the gang all over California right?" Dawn had asked. When Fred had nodded, she went on: "Well rather than call everybody here, let's call some Slayers and Watchers to the places they're going to be. That way they'll have back up in case something goes wrong." She added: "Which, given our luck, is probably going to happen."

Fred saw the sense in that. So the two had called some of the Slayers and Watchers who were still in the field and sent them to where they were needed. By two forty-five, all of the board members had called in that they had reached their respective destinations. By three a.m., all of the second teams had gotten into position about a block away from them. And just now the last of the Slayers and Watchers who hadn't been in either the field or the building had finally arrived. So , in theory, Angel-Slayer Inc should have been operating at full efficiency.

In theory.

"Miss Burkle!"

Fred sighed as the fourth stranger in six minutes ran up to her. "It's Fred, Mister…."

"Waterston. Keith Waterston." The young man was a little too perky even for her taste. "I just got a call from – Buffy?" Keith seemed unsure that he had heard right

Fred sighed. Clearly this was a real green hire who hadn't even gotten the name of one of the major bosses. "What does Buffy want?"

"She says that she and Lauren--"

"Lorne" Fred corrected tiredly.

"Whatever. They need back up in Santa Monica."

Fred thought for a moment again before looking at one of the many Post-It notes on her desk. "All right, Xander's out in the field. Call this number…and tell him and his team to go to this address."

"Yes, ma'am." The young man disappeared before she could correct him.

Fred heaved another sigh and walked over to one of the people she did know. "Dawn, how's it going on the Respighi?"

Dawn was looking at another text that had to do with the apocalypse. The young woman looked up at Fred. "Not so good. My Latin was never that strong and this is mainly Florentine which doesn't help matters."

Fred sighed. "Well, work harder and faster"

Dawn fixed her with a stare. "You know, a little more practice and you could be as bossy as my sister."

Before Fred could respond, her phone rang. "Night lasts long enough I may get there," she said before answering it. "This is Fred."

"It's Andrew."

"Is something wrong with Faith?"

"No. Um, I'm not sure. Faith finally figured how to use the spelling on her cell phone, and uh-she sent me what I think is a license plate on the instant message. Can you check it?"

"Hang on." Fred punched in a couple of commands on her computer, bringing up the California License Bureau. "California plates?"

"I guess so. " He gave her the plate number..

She typed it in and hit search.

And was stunned by what she saw.

"Oh lord." she said quietly and without even thinking disconnected from Andrew. Then she speed dialed Wesley.

**3:23:45 --- 3:23:46--- 3:23:47 ---- 3:23:48**

The instructions given by the tablet on where to find the band had, as was usually the case with centuries-old texts, rather vague. The computer had spit out that there was an 80 chance of success but, even had he not trusted those infernal devices, Giles would have figured Hansen Dam Park was the best place to look for the Band of Tarquin. It was located "between two liberated paths" -- the Foothill and Golden State freeways. It was "between a peak and a valley" -- the Verdugo Mountains and Tujunga Canyon. It was "where the city becomes a jungle" -- Angeles National Forest was a few miles away. And it was "where water lays trapped" -- the Dam itself.

So Giles and Robin were in the right place…generally. The problem was whether or not the Band of Tarquin's location had been buried under five feet of cement. There were some stretches of untouched dirt but a lot of the area near the dam had been paved over to the point where it would probably take a jackhammer to go looking for it. Robin had had the good sense to grab a pair of ultra-sensitive metal detectors and some big shovels to help them look. However, as Giles was repeatedly finding out, they were working TOO well. It could find a penny or a stray paper clip fifteen feet down which was okay if you are on the beach, but not so great when you were trying to find a mystical artifact and you are on the clock.

They had been at it for nearly forty minutes and all that they had found were fifty-nine cents, a piece of metal shaft from the dam itself and a couple of buttons. Giles was beginning to wonder if they should leave the work to the two apprentice Watchers who had shown up twenty minutes ago, and go try help Buffy and the others. He hadn't heard back from any of his charges and, even though he wasn't high on their callback, he was starting to--

"Giles!" Robin had gone to the other side of the enclave hoping for better luck and it appeared he had found it. "I found a box!" Giles dropped his shovel and began running towards him thinking that they had caught a break at last.

As he reached the spot where Robin had been digging, however, he felt a strange feeling of dread overtaking him. There was no reason for it but Giles felt that something was wrong . The feeling intensified as he neared Robin.

"Looks like its been here a while," Robin said, handing it to Giles. It was a wooden box with carvings on it. It was old enough and looked like Hittite, but he still felt that something was rotten in Denmark.

"There don't seem to be any locks." Giles tried pulling but the top was stubborn.

"Here, let me," Robin said. He began pulling at the top.

Giles looked away for a moment.

And saw the ground flicker.

"What the hell--" It happened again. And suddenly Giles realized what had happened. The glamour had flashed. Someone had been using some kind of magic to cover it up. Which could mean--

"Robin! Don't!"

But it was too late. Even as he grabbed the box, it opened.

A loud bang filled the air.

**3:30:47 --- 3:30:48 --- 3:30:49**

Angel reached the car several seconds before Wesley made it back. "Find anything?"

The ex-Watcher shook his head. "Nothing. Whoever it was who killed that vampire didn't leave a trace."

"Damn it!" Angel pounded his hand on the car roof.

"Either they used magic to cover their tracks or whoever it was is a faster runner than either of us."

"Faster than a vampire. Great," Angel said as he put a hand to his temple. "This day keeps getting better and better."

At that moment Wesley's phone rang. He pulled it out quickly. "I'm here." Short pause. "I'm sorry, Fred. The reception here is crap. What do you want?" Pause. "And what did Faith find out?" Long pause. A dark look came into his eyes. "You're absolutely certain of this information." Another long pause.

Angel definitely didn't like the expressions that were appearing on Wesley's face.

"I realize that." Another pause. "There's no way to get a message to her?" Pause. "I don't, Fred, we'll figure it out." He hung up without saying goodbye.

"More bad news?" Angel asked.

"Sort of." Wesley took a deep breath. "Faith is sitting on the warehouse we sent her to."

"Is the stone there?" he asked.

"No but they've found out something that could be just as important. Someone at the warehouse has a car with California plates. Fred just ran the license number."

"And?"

Wesley exhaled. "The car belongs to Justine Cooper."

Now Angel understood. He felt a darkness of his own overtake him as he thought of the woman who had trapped him at the bottom of the ocean for three months. "What is she doing there?"

"Apparently she decided to become a prisoner again. Only this jailer's a hundred times worse than Holtz." There was an expression of regret on his face that Angel didn't understand.

"What do you want to do?" Angel asked.

Wesley considered it for a moment. "See what's at Griffith Park."

Angel was a little surprised. "You sure?"

Wesley gathered himself. "I'm pretty sure that Faith can handle her. We've got a lead to follow and the clocks ticking."

Angel was about to speak when Wesley said, "We have an apocalypse to prevent. We can't get bogged down in vengeance."

"All right." Angel saw he meant it. He opened the car door. "Next stop Griffith Park."

**3:36:19 --- 3:36:20 --- 3:36:21 --- 3:36:22**

At first Giles had thought that he and Robin had gotten extraordinarily lucky. Whoever had dug up the box, replaced the Band Of Tarquin with the device and used what magic was necessary to make it look like the ground had been untouched could have replaced it with something far more dangerous: a bomb, a snake, even one of those miniature magic spells that some sorcerers used -- certainly something that could have instantly killed them or at the very least blown off his hand. Instead all they had been sprayed with a white powdery substance. He had thought that maybe the man who got to the band was demonstrating a perverse sense of humor-- the equivalent of giving them a raspberry.

That feeling lasted only a few seconds. Then he realized that the powder itself might be dangerous. He'd only paid a vague attention to events in the world (when you're neck deep in the supernatural you don't much care who was president) but he knew that there were all kinds of poisons, magical or traditional, that were more than capable of killing you just as dead as anything that might have been put in the box.

Robin came to the realization about a second after Giles. "We need to decontaminate now." He began undressing quickly, trying to get rid of any trace of the substance that way. Giles thought for an instant-- he had gotten less of the powder on him-- then remembered how many poisons eat through the skin and began to disrobe as well.

As they undressed another car pulled up and a man and a woman got out and started running towards them. At first the prudish part of Giles' nature almost overcame him and he considered putting some clothes back on. Then he recognized the man as Robert Merridew, one of the few Watchers to survive the First's purge. The realization came as only a minor relief.

"Bit cold for this, isn't it Rupert?" Merridew said with a small smile.

"The Band has been taken. The box blew up," Giles responded in an irritated tone. "There was a white powdery substance in it. Do I have to draw you a bloody map?"

Merridew cut the smart-arse behavior and became the cool operator that he had become known for. "We have to figure out what they hit you with. There's a medical center a few miles from here; we'll get you clean and identify it there."

"Is it safe?" Giles asked as he and Robin started walking towards the other car.

Merridew nodded. "Wolfram & Hart office. Watcher-trained medics. Safe as houses."

Giles acquiesced and got in the car. Merridew turned to him. "They knew that you were coming. They got here first and left this as a warning."

"Gee, you Watcher types are quick on the trigger," Robin said.

Giles nudged him because he knew what Merridew was getting at. "Why didn't they just leave an empty hole for us?" he asked. "Or if you're going to leave a trap for someone, why not go the distance and make it instantly fatal?"

"Good question," said Robin. "Do you have an answer for it?

Giles thought about it as the car began to move. He had a nasty tickle at the back of his mind. "I couldn't say. But I think whoever's behind this whole mess doesn't just want to beat us." He looked ahead. "He's playing a game."

**3:42:36 --- 3:3:42:37 --- 3:42:38**

Faith was beginning to wonder whether this was a complete waste of time. She had been here for over an hour, waiting to see if she could locate that vital component to the thing that was important to the end of the world, and all she knew for sure was that neither of the two people-- Justine and Kevin, according to them-- had it. They had been waiting as long as she had (in the case of Kevin, probably a bit longer) but Faith didn't think that they had exchanged more than four lines between them. It was almost as if they knew that she was there and were determined to give nothing away.

But things were beginning to look up. There were no obvious signs but, judging by the way that she was pacing around, Justine's patience was beginning to fray. She turned to Kevin. "You know I should probably just go out hunting myself. I didn't agree to this to be jerked around."

"He said that he would be here between 1:30 and 4:30. As far was know, he's sticking to his schedule." The young man seemed calm but it was clear that he was pretty wound up himself.

"When I signed up for this, the selling point was that I would get another chance at Angelus." Justine's statement surprised Faith, she didn't think that there were more than a few people outside of Wolfram & Hart knew Angel's real identity. "I'm burning starlight that I could have spent tracking him down."

Now Faith was really in the dark. This woman knew Angelus and had the attitude and sound of Buffy. Which side of the fence was she on?

"Look I don't know what your problem with this vampire is, but this is more important than just revenge." Kevin kept trying to focus his gaze on the constantly moving Justine. "We are part of a great process. We will change the world."

Just then Faith heard a car. She ducked further into the shadows as a red SUV pulled up to the warehouse.

The driver got something from the seat next to him and walked out the door.

"Its about time." Justine said. The driver walked through the door-- and the light struck the object that he was carrying.

When Faith saw it, the reality of the danger they were all in finally struck home. There really was darkness coming.

There had been no illustrations of the Stone of Meligan but, nevertheless, Faith recognized it instantly . Not because of any great intuition or Slayer knowledge. The reason she recognized it was because she had seen it before.

It was the jewel Spike had been wearing when the last battle of the Hellmouth had been fought.

**3:48:18 --- 3:48:19 ---3:48:20 ---3:48:21**

Though Buffy realized that Santa Monica was a pretty long commute, she was still pissed that it took her back-up -- Patrice, Xander and a former Watcher named Donnelly -- nearly thirty minutes to arrive. The only reason that she wasn't more upset at the delay was because she was more worried about what was going on in the nest. Whatever was still there hadn't made any effort to leave. That meant one of two things: the monsters were smart and afraid of her, so they were lying in wait so that they had a better chance of killing her, or that there were a lot of them and they were waiting in a confined area so that they would have a better chance of killing her. Not a pleasant prospect either way, even if you are a Chosen One.

Which was why it came as something of a surprise when she kicked the back door in, entered the restaurant with three of the others to find-- nothing. No vampires, no demons, no telemarketers. The room appeared to be completely empty.

"Well," Lorne said as they walked into the office, "I'd say this was disappointing if I wasn't so glad we're not going to get slaughtered."

"Yeah I'm really glad that I hauled ass over here to attack dust bunnies," Patrice said, annoyed.

Buffy was a little nonplussed herself, but she still had an unsettled feeling in the pit of her stomach. Something was wrong.

"Do we have any idea what they were doing here or did they just come for the pie?" asked Xander.

It was a good question. Buffy looked around the place and still couldn't find any sign that there was anything more valuable than a box of Raisin Bran.

Then she looked over to the left side of the kitchen and saw the walk-in freezer. There was nothing distinguished about it; like everything else it looked like it was covered with a years worth of dust. But it was closed tightly. Why? There wasn't anything that was going to spoil. Unless…

Buffy walked towards it. She was almost at it when Patrice, who was closer, got there. Without speaking, she indicated that she would open it. Buffy got herself prepared. Patrice yanked the door open to reveal…

…an empty icebox. Patrice sighed. "This is a waste of time."

Which was when the vampires began falling from the ceiling.

**3:53:51 --- 3:53:52 --- 3:53:53**

In the hour and a half that she had been at the "party," Willow had reached three separate conclusions. One, these people had a very shaky grasp of what 'malefactum' meant. The general belief seemed to be that they were going to ascend to a higher plane which, even if it were accurate, was dangerous enough itself. Two, they considered the blood and markings, not sinister but "signs from a new era." Three, they made some of the most delicious appetizers she'd had in a while.

"Could you please try to munch quieter?" said Gunn's voice in her ear. A while ago, she had dialed Gunn's cell phone and left it on so that he could hear what was happening at the party. After all, it wasn't as if they were going to get a big bill this late at night. "Some of us haven't eaten in a while and you're making me hungry."

Willow didn't answer, but she stopped eating her chopped liver on Wheat Thins. She didn't worried about someone hearing him; the music was so loud that a small bomb could have exploded without anyone noticing. She turned towards the twelfth total stranger that she had talked to since she arriving and, for the tenth time, asked the same question: "Who's throwing this party?"

The young man she had been talking with shrugged.

She tried another angle. "Whose place is this?" She had asked this question six times and had only gotten shrugs. Apparently everyone here was so high on life, they didn't care whose home they were trashing.

This time, though, she got a response: "Tiffany." She was so stunned that she had gotten a response that he took her silence for not hearing him. "Tiffany Neubert," he repeated.

The name sounded familiar but Willow couldn't quite place it. "What's she do?"

The young man shrugged. "Way I hear it her parents own something like half of Van Nuys."

"Then what's she doing with a house here?"

Again all she got was another shrug. Then suddenly she heard someone shouting. "Quiet down, everybody? Could everybody please shh?"

Aside from the fact that it was a woman, Willow couldn't tell anything about the voice. But some people must have recognized it because in the space of a minute, people began to lower their voices until there was general quiet.

"Okay, Okay, I know that we're all excited about this great thing that's going to happen today but we do have to get ourselves together. After all," she paused, "some of us have to get ready for the big raising in two hours!" The crowd evidently knew something about this because there was general elation for thirty seconds. Again the woman-- twentyish, black hair, model figure-- signaled for quiet and got it. "So some of us have to get started to the Hollywood Bowl to help bring about this great change." Another thirty seconds of glee. "But before we do this I think we should all give a couple of seconds to the woman who's helping make this all possible."

"Thanks but-- "Again noise blocked out the rest of the sentence. Willow didn't notice it because she had just got a chill down her spine. She finally remembered who Tiffany Neubert was. Halfway through junior year at Sunnydale, Tiffany had transferred out of Sunnydale High which had deeply upset Cordelia. Tiffany had been one of the Cordettes, and one of them had been really upset that Tiffany left.

"So, lets all give it up for the queen of the Dark who made this all possible. My great friend, Harmony!"

**3:59:57 --- 3:59:58 --- 3:59:59 --- 4:00:00**


	5. 4AM to 5AM

Chapter 5

The Following Takes Place Between 4 AM And 5 AM on the Autumnal Equinox.

Despite the immediate danger of the moment, despite the level of the threat, after recovering from the shock of seeing one of her classmates involved in this, Willow's first reaction was to laugh. Harmony responsible for bringing about the endtimes? She had never been very threatening when she was alive, and even after she had died she had been so lousy a vampire that, though she had many opportunities, Buffy hadn't bothered to stake her.

Gunn, who had met Harmony once and hadn't been very impressed, seemed equally amused. "Maybe we've been worrying over nothing. She doesn't even make a decent vamp. What the hell could she do now?"

Seemingly unaware of the humor she was generating not ten feet away, Harmony began to speak. "Hello everybody. I'd like to thank you all for coming. This is a big night and all of you coming makes it even more special."

The crowd (who couldn't have known Harmony long if they believed this) cheered for a few seconds before Harmony signaled for quiet again. "Tonight's a real big night for the planet and for all of us. A great change is coming and we're going to build a bridge into the twenty-first century for it to cross."

Willow winced as Harmony continued to mangle the English language.

"Now some really big things are going to happen soon. You've all done a really super job with the blood and these centa-- penta-- these evil circles." Again cheers. "As Tiffany said, we're almost ready to start the Disney-topia…." Tiffany whispered in her ear. "…dysoniptia, but there's still one more thing we have to do." Suddenly Harmony's face shifted from human to demon. "And that's grab the witch that thinks she's going to stop it!"

Willow looked around and suddenly found that she was pretty well surrounded, and though they weren't demons they were trouble enough.

"Oh crap,"

**4:03:45 --- 4:03:46 --- 4:03:47** 

Now that the opportunity Faith had been waiting for had arrived, she was uncertain how to proceed. She had expected that, after they had received the Stone, the three of them would leave the warehouse. Instead Justine, Kevin and whoever this third guy was had begun to argue .

"You said that once we find this stone, it would ensure that we would get Angelus." Justine seemed very pissed.

"I said no such thing, Miss Cooper." The thirtyish man in a three-piece suit who had come bearing the stone spoke as if talking to a child throwing a tantrum. "I said that the Stone would help us obtain the vampire with a soul."

"That's him. How many vampires with souls are there?" Justine was getting more and more agitated.

"One more than you think, Miss Cooper." He made a calming gesture. "Patience. What we are doing will ensure the involvement of Angelus. This is so big that he will not be able to ignore it."

He looked at her. "Besides I thought that you were in this for more than petty revenge."

Justine swallowed. "You know my reasons and my loyalties. I don't have to justify them to you."

"As you know mine." He walked over to Justine. "Now its time that we get moving. We have to meet with the others if we are going to pull this off."

This was going to be a problem. Faith speed-dialed Andrew.

He picked up after one ring. "Faith. Is the Stone of Meligan there?"

"Yeah. Only it's not just any stone. It's one we've seen before."

"Where?"

"Around Spike's neck." There was a pause.

"I thought that was buried underneath the Hellmouth." Andrew seemed unsure. "How could somebody spend that much time and energy--"

"Let's worry about how they got it when we've got it."

Andrew gathered himself. "All right. How many of them are there?"

"Three. Two men, one woman." She paused. "Who's Justine Cooper?"

"According to Fred, she was the woman who slit Wes' throat and left him for dead then helped put Angel twenty thousand leagues under the sea."

Faith had known the story of Holtz and the men and women he had assembled to fight Angel. Justine's name had never been mentioned. "I'd say she is severely due for an ass-kicking."

"You need back up?"

Faith thought it over for a few seconds. "Give me five minutes, then get over here." She looked at the three of them. "I don't think this will take very long." She hung up.

Faith gathered herself, then began running towards the broken window. Five feet away, she jumped--

--and entered the warehouse in a wave of broken glass. The two men whirled around, surprised. Justine, however, seemed perfectly calm. "You do know that the door was open?" she said.

Faith got to her feet. "I always prefer a dramatic entrance."

"Let me guess," said the older man. "You're one of those vampire slayers."

Faith did a mock bow. "Got it in one. For double points, what do I want from you?"

"Wild guess: you want this?' He held up the pink bauble.

"You are sharp."

Justine stepped forward. "Not gonna happen, bitch."

Faith turned toward her. "Of course. Girl like you never runs from a fight. Little warning though. I'm a Slayer. That means I'm better, stronger, faster. That means I'm going to beat you." She was now just a few feet from Justine. "Doesn't have to be this way."

Faith sensed rather than saw Justine move. She dodged and threw a punch that should have knocked her down.

Justine dodged it and delivered a blow that stunned Faith much more then it hurt her. "I think it does."

And in the three seconds that passed before they truly began to fight, Faith realized that she had made a major miscalculation.

One that might kill her.

**4:11:42 --- 4:11:43 --- 4:11:44 --- 4:11:45**

Even as Buffy battled the vampires, she couldn't help wonder what on earth was up with this particular group of the undead. First they had put up a rather vigorous defense of their home, now they had the cunning to climb up into the ceiling and wait? The only time vamps showed brains was when they were led by someone who HAD some-- and those had been few and far between. The fact that there might be some new vamp with intelligence leading this batch of the undead bothered her a great deal more than she wanted to let on.

That did not stop her from dusting three of the six vampires that had been hiding in the ceiling with only a modest amount of trouble, but she was still concerned. They needed more information and they needed it before they got in any deeper.

She whirled around to Patrice who was about to take out the last vampire. "Hold it!"

Patrice stopped a split second before she brought the stake down. She looked questioningly as the woman who, for all the changes of the last few months, still was a leader.

"What?"

"Don't you remember that we've got a lot of questions about today?" She walked right up to him. "And just like at Radio Shack, I bet he's got answers."

The vampire looked up and fixed Buffy with a defiant and unafraid look. "You may do what you will with me, but you will learn nothing."

"Of course because you cult-undead all have this big fanatic streak," said Buffy.

The vamp laughed. There was arrogance in it. "You're the One." Buffy must have looked confused because he added. "The One from whom the many drew their power. The One who tried to stop the Source."

"If you're talking about me and the First, then yes, Morpheus, I am the one."

"You mock me. You think that you and your puny team can stop what's going to happen today." The vamp gave a smile that Buffy didn't like at all. "You will fail. You will watch as your friends fall to us. Nothing will stand in our way as we march across the Earth," he sneered. "Not you, not them, not even the sun. We will be triumphant."

Then in a motion that was so fast that none of them had any time to react, the vamp seized the stake from Patrice. Before Buffy could do more than shout "Stop!" he had driven it into his own chest. Even as he disintegrated he looked triumphant.

"Damn it!" Buffy slammed her fist into the wall hard enough to crack the plaster.

"What do we do now?" asked Xander, his normal humor subdued by what she had just seen.

And it occurred to her. "They've got something hidden here." She looked around. "Something worth dying for."

**4:15:24 --- 4:15:25 --- 4:15:26**

Even after they arrived at Griffith Park, Wesley still wasn't sure how they were going to find the man they were looking for. Located as close as it was to the Hollywood there weren't a great many houses, and those that were weren't the kind of places that you could walk up to the door and ring the bell, especially at this hour. Furthermore, the park itself was such a popular area that there were a lot of people, dead and living, who hung out there. With no obvious clues and only a very general description, finding this Harvey fellow would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Indeed, they probably would never have found their lead had they not run across a vamp trying to accost a young woman. Angel pulled the vampire off her while Wesley headed for the girl.

"Thanks a lot mister. " she said as he helped her to her feet. She was a dirty blonde in her thirties trying to look younger and not doing a very good job at it. "I don't know what the fuck was up with that weirdo. My pepper spray didn't do jack shit to him."

"He just attacked you?'

"No, the crazy son-of-a-bitch asked me if I would open a vein. I told him I don't do that shit for less than two hundred and he morphs on me."

"So you're a--"

"--working girl." she said without any tone at all. " Are you shocked?"

As recently as two years ago, if Wesley had been in a similar situation he would have begun to bumble along, muttering and ringing his hands. Now he just coolly said: "You do what you have to do."

The lady of the night looked him over. "Man, you English types can be so damn cool and condescending."

That got Wesley's attention in a hurry. "You have a lot of British clients?" Seeing the woman look at him, he said: "I'm not a cop."

"I know you're not. Cops just want to fuck me, not ask me questions."

"Do you have any British clients?" he asked firmly.

The woman stared at him for a moment. Finally she said: "Every couple of days this English john shows up asking to get washed and dry cleaned. "

"What's his name?'

"Yeah cause they always confide in us."

Wesley stared at her.

"He calls himself Lord Hawkins. Old guy, early forties, black hair. Says he's in the demolition business."

"You have any idea where he lives?" When she fixed him with a look of her own, he said: "He owes me money."

She looked at him for a while and then shrugged. "He says he's doing a project at the Hollywood Bowl. Something earth-shaking was how he put it." As he got up to leave, she said: "You know, you look like you could use to let of some steam. When you're finished with him, maybe we could…" She made a gesture that left little to the imagination.

He turned back to her: "Thanks for offering, but I've had enough dark sex to last me a lifetime." And without waiting for her reaction, he left to find Angel.

**4:23:29 --- 4:23:30 --- 4:23:31--- 4:23:32**

After Faith's call Andrew quickly gathered his nerve and drove until he was right on top of the warehouse. Mere seconds after he got there two cars burst out of the area around back and pulled away. The warehouse door was left open and he could Faith in the midst of a battle royal with Justine. His first instinct was to get out and help her, but then it hit him that the people who had just left probably were taking the Stone of Meligan to whoever else was involved in this plot. And while he would be at a disadvantage in a close fight, he could actually do some good if he found the jewel.

Saying a silent prayer that he didn't dent it, he pulled Angel's car away from the warehouse and started driving in the direction of the other cars. Then as soon as he had one of them in sight-- a beat up old Citroen that even at its top speed was not going very fast-- he hit the speed dial on his phone.

Before the voice on his cell could say more then "Ain—" he began speaking rapidly. "This is Andrew. I'm driving…" he tried to figure out which way he was going and then gave up "…down Woodman Avenue. I am chasing a yellow Citroen heading towards… " He looked at a street sign as he drove past "…Victory Boulevard. I need you to get whatever back up is closest to intercept me. Understand?"

There was a moment of silence. "What color was the car?" a strange voice said.

Andrew would have thrown up his hands in frustration (and probably crashed) except a few seconds later the Citroen began spitting out black fumes and slowing down. "Praise the Lord," he said pulling back so that he wouldn't run into this idiot before he got some questions answered.

The car finally stopped. Andrew reached under the dashboard, wishing that he had a "noisy cricket" but settling for the crossbow that was there. Gathering his nerve he stepped out of the car.

The driver of the Citroen had locked himself in his car. Andrew walked around to the front, raised the bow to chest level and, in his best Peter Weller-as-Robocop voice said: "Step out of the car".

The man-- who looked like he was Andrew's age at the oldest-- considered for a few seconds and then very slowly got out of the car. When he made a move as if he was going to bolt Andrew raised the crossbow and, hoping the young man didn't see his hands tremble, said: "If you want to die by all means start running."

The young man looked at him. "Who are you working with?"

"You're my prisoner; I ask the questions." Andrew said in his best Fox Mulder voice. "What's your name?"

"Kevin. Kevin Isaacson."

"Where is the stone?"

Kevin paused, considered his options, then spoke. "The other guy's got it."

"What's his name?"

"He calls himself Saint John. I don't know if that's his real name."

Suddenly another piece of the puzzle clicked. "You met him on-line." he said. "He used the screen name Rev68."

Kevin looked alarmed. "How…how the hell did you know that?"

He told Kevin the one thing that he remembered from the Religion class he'd taken at college. "John wrote the Book of Revelation." He then shook his head and brought himself back to the present. "Where did this Saint say that he was taking the Stone?"

"I…I don't…"

At that exact moment Andrew accidentally brushed the trigger on the crossbow. The bolt shot through the air and hit the pavement a foot away from him. His near-miss rattled Kevin. "He said that he was taking it to Hollywood. Down to Laurel Canyon."

Andrew considered this for a second and then began to walk towards the car. He had to get the information to the others but he had to handle a more pressing problem first--

How to call for back up and get help without lowering the crossbow.

**4:31:28 --- 4:31:29 --- 4:31:30**

To say that Wolfram & Hart was a beehive of activity was to overestimate the activity of beehives. Every few minutes some new information kept coming in and everybody had to readjust.

The first problem had come when they had learned that not only had the forces of evil beat them to the Band of Tarquin, but that Robin and Giles were temporarily off the boards.

Less than an hour later Fred had gotten information from Charles that topped that. Harmony was part of the cabal that was responsible for the raisings, which wasn't a problem. Willow had been taken prisoner, which was bad, and for some reason she hadn't been able to use her magic to free herself, which was worse. Gunn had spent the better part of twenty minute running after a car that he had thought had held Willow only to find that it had been a wild goose chase. He was retracing his steps but thought that it was fifty/fifty that Willow was still alive.

This was a problem of such a level that Fred would have had to mobilize a team to try and find her. But then they learned of a bigger problem when Andrew called in and told them what the Stone of Meligan was and that it was gone. That had come as a huge shock to Fred for many reasons but it was Andrew who asked the right question: "Why would something that helped save the world play a role in destroying it?"

"I have no idea." Fred thought for a moment. "But, then, Wolfram & Hart devices can have more than one purpose."

"Are we any closer to figuring out what else the Stone does?"

"I don't know. Let me check." Fred walked over to one of the translations of the texts of Molochi. Suddenly two words shot out at her. She hadn't thought it was possible for her to become more alarmed but they did the trick.

"I think I have an idea. And if it's true we may be facing worse odds than I thought."

"What does the Stone do?"

"It has the power to reflect the energy of the sun. But it also has the power to shut it out."

**4:35:11 --- 4:35:12 --- 4:35:13 --- 4:35:14**

Faith had dealt with some tough battles in her five plus years since becoming a Slayer but none had been tougher than her fights against Buffy. It wasn't just that the blond Slayer had put her into a coma, it was having two people, both endowed with the same powers and knowing exactly how to use it going into combat. To put it another way, it had been like fighting herself.

Fighting Justine wasn't quite as difficult as fighting Buffy, but it was becoming a very close call and Faith had gotten some very bad ideas. She'd have to use other means to beat this woman and she thought she knew how.

"Let me guess…. what happened to you… four months ago…" she said while she bobbed and weaved. "You woke up one day and you were able to run faster and hit harder then you had the day before."

Justine didn't respond, she just kept throwing punches and dodging Faith's blows.

"I don't think you've been eating your Wheaties…" Faith said as she dodged a punch "…and you don't strike me as the kind of girl who does steroids." She fixed Justine with a look for a second before returning to the attack. "Weren't you at least curious as to how you got super powers without coming from Krypton?"

"I…just thought…they were sent by God." Justine's voice didn't waver but Faith thought she struck a nerve

"God. Yes." She dodged. "This was your divine reward for slitting Wesley's throat and killing the only man who considered you worth saving."

"You don't know anything about it."

But Faith could sense a change in Justine's attitude. "I know what it's like…to think that you're on the right side of something and then realize that it's been a lie." Faith dodged a couple of sloppy punches. "I know what its like to get some great power and not know how to use it."

"You don't know shit about me, you bitch." Justine was getting angrier and less measured in her fighting.

"I know what its like to feel trapped by who you think you are." Faith was relentless in her blows and her speech. "I know what its like to want to die."

"SHUT UP!" Justine shouted.

Faith thought that she had beaten her. Then suddenly Justine made a move so fast that it would have killed someone normal. Faith barely had time to react before the dagger came within an inch of her throat. She recovered quickly but Justine was now powered by rage and slammed her in the head with a blow so hard it knocked her down.

Faith lay on the ground, barely conscious after these two rapid attacks. Justine could have finished her off and it seemed for a few seconds that she was going to do it. Finally she turned around and began running for the exit of the warehouse.

Still reeling Faith lifted herself up: "They're going to bring about Armageddon, Justine. Can you live with that?"

Almost at the exit Justine stopped and turned: "I've had my fill with the world as it is now. I won't cry if it ends." And with that she was out the door.

By the time Faith rose Justine and her car was gone.

**4:41:33 --- 4:41:34 --- 4:41:35**

It had been an least a half hour since Willow had been grabbed and she still had no idea where she was or how her magical powers were being held in check. All she could tell was that she was in a big truck heading-- somewhere. She would have expected this from a great monster or a powerful wizard, but Harmony frigging Kendall? It was insulting.

"Why are you following her?" she asked the two demons standing guard over her. "Did she cast some kind of mind-altering spell? Are you masochists?" No response. "Has she got you on Zoloft?"

"They can't answer, dummy." Willow looked around to find Harmony was standing a few feet away. "In order to worship the evil ones, they had cut out their tongues."

"Which means that you can talk to them and they can never interrupt. That's one fantasy fulfilled." Willow looked at her darkly. "Gotten any others? That thing with Charlize Theron?"

Harmony looked at her. "Actually having you chained up and powerless to stop me was really high on my list."

"Harmony, I didn't know you felt that way." Willow couldn't believe she was doing this, but to get out of this…

For a second the old Harmony was back. "Ohh, gag me with a spoon! That's not what I meant and you know it--" She recovered quickly. "Nice try, Rosenberg, but this is the new and improved Harmony Kendall. Complete with _loyal _minions, rope and chains enchanted so that no magic can break them, and a real diabolical evil plan." She got right into Willow's face. "So pardon me if I say, 'Nyah-nyah- nyah-nyah'"

"So you're the evil genius behind this plan."

"I wish. But don't worry, you'll be meeting--" _pause _"--that person soon." She smiled. "See how much better I've gotten at keeping secrets?"

"Yeah. You're a real Mata Hari," Willow said sarcastically "So I suppose you're going to tell me the details of this evil plan?"

"Oh, you're going to find out soon enough."

"I suppose you're not going to tell me who this dysoniptia is raising either."

Harmony began to laugh. "What's so funny?

"You never read the prophecy correctly., did you?" Harmony regained control of herself and looked right at her.. "The dysoniptia-- you're the one who will set it in motion." She smiled at Willow's shock. "How's it feel to be back on the dark side?"

**4:46:59 --- 4:47:00 --- 4:47:01--- 4:47:02**

As Giles dressed he considered what part of the entire decontamination experience had been the most humiliating: That he had had to strip down in front of his fellow Watchers, that he had had to stand stark naked while a young man had sprayed him with a hose, or that the only clothes that they could find that fit him involved a shirt which detailed the role of "shit" in various philosophies. Part of his discontent was his natural makeup but he also knew that he was concentrating on these irritations so he wouldn't have to consider the possibility that he had gotten dusted with something lethal.

"Not exactly tweed, is it?" He turned as Robin approached. If the situation wasn't so serious he might have laughed at the sight of the former principal wearing a shirt with the words "GRAVITY SUCKS" on it.

"At least your shirt has a simple message," said Giles. "A shirt like mine… there's a very good possibility that passers-by would stop to read it."

The two men smiled at the ridiculousness of the situation then Robin turned serious. "Do you have any idea what the heck we got covered in?"

Giles shook his head. "No way to tell. It didn't kill us instantly so it has a lesser degree of toxicity. But a lot of things can be poisonous if you digest or inhale enough of it."

"That's encouraging." Robin suddenly became quiet.

Giles turned around. Merridew was back in the room. He had a look of grim foreboding on his face, but Giles had seen him act this way when there was a chance of inclement weather.

"Rupert, Robin." Giles got worried. Merridew rarely used first names. "We've finished running the tests."

"Be straight with us."

"The poison was a hybrid of foxglove, aconitine and scoplaomine. Alone, they are potentially deadly but they're exceptionally dangerous when mixed together. There is even a small chance of being infected if it got on your skin."

"And did it?" asked Giles.

"Fortunately, we managed to get it off your skin and face. We'll have to wait a few hours to run some more tests on your blood but we don't think either of you absorbed it that way. Since he only touched the box, Rupert will be all right.'"

"Then why the long face?" said Robin.

Merridew turned to Giles. "Rupert, if you could give us a minute…"

"No," Robin's voice was wavering but firm, "I don't want to hear this alone."

The older watcher waited then slowly began to speak. "Based on the size of the box and some of the early blood work, we're pretty sure that you have ingested a lethal dose of the poison."

Robin was silent. Giles wasn't. "Then how come he's still alive?"

"These poisons take a while to be absorbed in the blood and other vital organs. It doesn't kill instantly but it is fatal."

"How long do I have?"

"Robin, the blood work isn't finished yet and we won't know for certain..."

"How long?" Robin was firm.

Merridew looked him in the eye. "Could take as long as a week. Or as little as a day."

Robin took this in silently. Giles' mind was still whirling. "The Council, they had access to all sorts of cures--"

"They were destroyed by the First," said Merridew gently. "I'm very sorry. I wish we could help but…"

"Could I have a minute?" Robin said. "Alone."

"Of course." Merridew left, bringing Giles with him.

He would have protested but he was still trying to process how close he had come to death again-- and this time someone else had been touched by the Reaper.

**4:55:38 --- 4:55:39 --- 4:55:40**

By the time Wesley and Angel had reached the Hollywood Bowl they had learned from Fred that the Band of Tarquin was gone, that they had dropped the ball on what the Stone of Meligan was and what it could do, and that Willow had been taken prisoner.

Hearing the last, Angel had wanted to launch a rescue mission. Though Wesley felt the same way, he managed to convince Angel to keep to the plan.

"Stopping the dysoniptia supersedes all other priorities," he had told Angel. "It is more important than one individual life. I know that Willow wouldn't want the world to end because of her. We need to handle this."

_What a great leader you are, _part of him thought. _Treating people as if they are no more than pieces on a chessboard. And you thought you lost your humanity after you got your throat cut._ With a great deal of effort Wesley managed to make himself the cold and efficient person he had been in so many other situations and concentrate, literally, on what was ahead.

"It's obvious that something pretty big is going on here," Wesley said as they looked at the area through binoculars.

Angel nodded "Unless the cleaning crew has started hiring vampires, something's up."

It was more than the presence of people, alive or otherwise. In the distance they could see that someone had painted several mystical symbols on the stage. Several people were carving pentagrams into the walls. And in the orchestra pit, there were two stands that were pretty clearly sacrificial altars.

"Something bad is gonna happen here," Angel said. "What I don't get is why here? Why something this conspicuous?'

"Because sometimes for a dark ritual, you need a little theater."

Wesley and Angel whirled around. It wasn't just that the voice had come from nowhere, it was that it had been familiar.

"You know that's one of the things I love about you Watcher types. You can't stop doing your job."

Suddenly a puff of smoke appeared to their left. When it cleared, two very large vampires had appeared with guns. But it wasn't the vampires or the weapons they bore that drew their attention. It was the man between them. The man with dark hair and a menacing grin.

"You," said Wesley.

"Me," said Ethan Rayne.

**4:59:57 --- 4:59:58 --- 4:59:59 --- 5:00:00**


	6. 5AM to 6AM

Chapter 6

The following takes place between 5AM and 6AM on the day of the autumnal equinox

Angel was beginning to feel a lot like he was on an episode of "This Is Your Life." Every time he tried to get a handle on the apocalypse someone from the past would make a guest appearance. He was only marginally surprised to see that Ethan Rayne, a man who had gotten into his bad graces by siccing the demon Leighton on him five years ago, was somehow involved in this mess. What did shock him was that Wesley recognized the conjurer as well.

"Well, well you really have lowered your standards Wesley my boy," Ethan said as he circled them like a vulture. "I knew that the Council had sacked you, but I am surprised at your choice of companion. Working with a vampire? What would _Pater_ say?"

"Probably the same thing your uncle would." Wesley's calm tone did not disguise the menace in it. Ethan didn't react but Angel could tell that he was pissed off.

"Wait a minute," a very unsettling and plausible idea had just entered Angel's head, "are you telling me that this… conjurer… was at one point--"

"A Watcher? Want to see the secret handshake?" Ethan asked with a smile. "How did you think Ripper and I met? Computer dating?"

"His uncle was one of the grand elders. And he was incredibly upset when his nephew became the first Watcher in eighty years to be expelled from the Council." Wesley spoke grimly. "Toying with black magic for personal gain…"

"Yes, that was the most appalling event to happen until-- well until you became the first Watcher in history to lose two Slayers." Ethan smiled. "So let's not compare permanent records, OK?"

Wesley looked at Ethan. "Getting sacked by the Council was the best thing that ever happened to me."

"Ditto." The smile vanished from Ethan's face. "And now that we've finished this little stroll down Memory Lane, would the two of you start walking or the five gentlemen who accompany me will be forced to do things that I wouldn't mind seeing done anyway?"

"Rayne, can't you even bloody count? There are only two…" Wesley was interrupted by a tap on the shoulder from one of the other three vampires who had appeared while the two ex-Watchers had been talking. "Oh. " He sighed. "Very well."

Angel and Wesley began walking, not so much because they were worried about dying but more because this might be their only chance to figure out what was behind this dark ritual.

"Last I heard you we're being held in a military jail," said Wesley.

"Yes, that was frightening and unnerving," Ethan said cheerfully. "I don't know how I managed to get through the whole week."

"You managed to escape that fast?" Angel asked.

"God bless the American military. Couldn't find their arse with a telescope."

"Just so were clear, you've gone from random acts of mischief to bringing about the end of the world," said Angel, incredulous. "That's a pretty big step from someone who just used to turn his friends into Fyarl demons."

Ethan stopped. "Oh my. Someone's been misreading their prophecies."

"You're going to tell us that you and your-- and I use this term loosely-- merry band aren't planning to bring about Armageddon?" asked Wesley, bemused.

"To paraphrase one of the more brilliant leaders of this country, that depends on what your definition of 'Armageddon' is" Ethan said. The sardonic mocking tone was back in his voice. "I see it more as bringing a new order."

"This from a man who worships Chaos." Now Wesley was the one speaking incredulously.

"Come now, Wesley. You don't think that a man can grow or change?"

"A man might be able to grow." The incredulity in Wesley's voice had been replaced by venom. "You, however, are the lowest and most contemptible form of protoplasm that I have ever had the misfortune to know."

For a second Ethan's smile disappeared and Angel could sense the true hatred that he had for Wesley. Then it was gone and the grin was back. "Well that is rather unfortunate, because our time together is about to end."

"You're going to kill us," said Angel bluntly.

"You're half right. Since we may need you later Angel, you'll be allowed to live a little longer. Wesley, however, serves no real purpose even as entertainment. Therefore, as the Americans would put it, your ass is grass." Ethan nodded at one of the vampire. "He's an old friend, so make it as painful as possible."

The vampires moved toward Wesley. Angel saw his opening. He took it. Two of the vampires were on him like lightning, distracting one of the others. Wesley managed to whirl around and bring out his gun with the special ammo. The vampires, who clearly weren't the best and the brightest, had trouble hitting their targets. Wesley and Angel did not.

In the space of a minute, three of the vampires were gone. So was Ethan Rayne. Angel was about to chase after him when Wesley stopped him. "We need to get help."

Angel had trouble understanding this. "We can get him."

"Ethan's not the problem," Wesley explained as patiently as he could. "We know where he'll be and that he'll have help. We need to stop the dysoniptia and we can't do it alone." He took out his phone. "We need Buffy and the others."

As he dialed, Angel looked towards the sky. It was getting lighter. "Tell them to hurry."

Ethan made his way back to the safety of the Hollywood Bowl. He was disturbed but not upset.

"Get your help, friends," he said darkly. "Soon no one will be able to save you."

**5:10:27--- 5:10:28 --- 5:10:29 --- 5:10:30**

Giles wasn't sure what to do. He knew that he had to do something to help Robin, but he also knew that the first of the raisings was going to take place in less than an hour. He was torn between helping his friend and saving the world-- something that he wasn't sure would have given him nearly as much trouble a few months ago.

"What will the first symptoms be?" asked the former principal. It was amazing how calm Robin seemed discussing his death sentence. He must still be in denial, Giles thought.

Speaking with a kindness that Giles rarely heard, Merridew said, "You'll feel a numbness in your arms. Then you'll feel a burning sensation in your chest."

"Like I've had a bad burrito?" asked Robin. Apparently he had picked up the joke mechanism from Xander regarding mortality.

"It will pass and then you'll be having trouble catching your breath. Then…"

Giles cell phone chose that minute to begin playing 'Dream The Impossible Dream.' He opened it quickly. "Yes?"

"Are the two of you finished decontaminating?" asked Fred.

There were all kinds of responses that Giles could have made. For some reason he chose to say, "They've done everything they can."

"And you're all right?"

Giles knew what he should say but he still couldn't. Robin wasn't a Slayer but… "What do you want?" he asked.

"We need you and Robin to get over to the Hollywood Bowl."

While Giles considered this, Fred then added. "We're pretty sure that's where they're performing the dysoniptia."

For a moment Giles forgot about what was happening at the clinic. "You're sure?"

"Wesley called a couple of minutes ago to confirm it. We're also pretty sure they have the stone of Meligan. "

Giles' mind came back to the present problem. "Shouldn't you send people who can do more? Like Buffy or Faith?"

"Faith is en route as we speak. Buffy's on the other side of town; by the time she gets there they may have started."

Robin had stopped asking about his own problems and was listening to Giles' end of the conversation.

"The two of you are less than five miles away, right?"

While Giles considered this, Robin turned to Merridew. "Am I contagious?" he asked calmly.

Merridew seemed a little befuddled. "No, you're not a danger to anyone else."

Robin took a deep breath and exhaled. "Tell Fred we'll be there as soon as we can."

"Robin--" said Giles stunned.

"Tell them."

Giles turned around, almost dazed. "We'll start over." The second he hung up, he turned to Robin: "Are you bloody crazy?"

"Am I going to die soon?" Robin asked Merridew.

"We don't know for sure…"

"Am I going to die soon?" he asked, relentless.

Merridew sighed. "Probably."

"Then I might as well die saving the world."

Giles was stunned. "Robin, you shouldn't, you can't--"

"We don't have time to argue. It's my decision, so that's what I'm going to do." With that Robin started walking to wards the exit.

Giles wasn't going to let this go. "They'll cut you to ribbons!!"

"Good," said Robin. "I'd rather die fighting on my feet than lying on my back."

Giles would have argued more but then he looked at his watch and realized the brutal truth. They had less than forty-five minutes. They had to go now. Giles turned to Merridew. "Can he do this?"

Merridew nodded. "For the next ten to twelve hours he'll probably be okay. After that..."

He tactfully stopped before finishing the sentence. Giles knew what the last three words were: _It won't matter_. He also knew that he they needed every man they had. There were other options, but they simply didn't have the time to exercise them.

"God have mercy on our souls." he said as he followed Robin out the door.

**5:17:11 --- 5:17:12 --- 5:17:13**

Faith was beginning to regret that she had let Andrew talk her into bringing Kevin along. She realized that they didn't have time to drive him back to Wolfram & Hart or hand him over to the police. They could, however, have let him go which, while dangerous, would have been far less annoying.

The problem was Andrew, hard as it was to believe, had done something that scared the shit out of Kevin and now they couldn't get him to stop talking about the horrible mess that he had gotten him into with this cult. At first she had listened to him hoping for useful information, but after hearing him whine about the fact that he had stolen his mother's jewelry to use as an offering she was ready knock herself unconscious.

The car came to a stop. Kevin did not. He continued until the three of them had gotten out of the car.

"That guy thought he was so big bleeding me, but I got my back against him--"

Faith was getting ready to slap him when Andrew beat her to it. It was a pretty limp slap but it shut Kevin up.

"All right. We get it." Andrew said brusquely. "Let me just say that as tales of going down the wrong paths, compared to Faith's story -- or mine-- you're still lagging behind. Now either you start giving us some useful information about the dysoniptia or…"

He stopped unsure how to finish his threat.

Suddenly Faith was inspired. "We'll turn you over to Angelus for a couple of hours."

This was the right threat to use: "No! No! I'll tell you what I know!" Kevin started saying repeatedly. When Andrew made a motion as if to slap him again, he said, "All I know is that the Stone has some kind of power stored in it. And that when they release it, a dark power will arise."

"And the world ends," said Faith.

Kevin shook his head franticly. "Then the powers that have been released used to release some other great power-- more powerful than that."

"And then the world ends." said Faith patiently.

"No. Then the great one arises and shall unzip the heavens, releasing… something else."

Faith threw up her hands. "Jesus! Can't there just be one big evil instead of a jillion medium-sized ones? "

"Uh Faith…" Andrew tried to interrupt.

"Can't there be something I can beat up and get rid of?"

"I think you're gonna get a good chance."

Suddenly whatever warning bells that went off when a big nasty was around went off. She turned towards Andrew. Sure enough a flock of demons and vampires were headed their way.

"Ask a stupid question…" she sighed and got ready to fight.

**5:23:41 --- 5:23:42 --- 5:23:43 --- 5:23:44**

The truck was slowing to a stop. Wherever they had been going they had arrived. That didn't make Willow happy.

She had made no progress in anything. For the past half-hour she had been doing everything she could to slither out from the ropes. Not only did she not succeed, she could have sworn that they had gotten tighter.

Her efforts to get Harmony to talk had been even less successful. Alive or dead, there had been fewer things Harmony liked better than the sound of her own voice. But, after dropping the information that Willow was going to help bring the dysoniptia forward, she had shut up tighter than a cork in a bottle. Willow didn't know which was more frightening: that Harmony was behind a plan that actually had a chance of succeeding or that she had somehow gained the wisdom to be quiet when something important was being done. Willow had stopped thinking about it because she had a feeling that more frightening things were ahead.

"Tell me, Rosenberg, you ever get over being afraid of performing in public?"

That brought Willow back in a hurry. That had been one of her greatest fears in high school. How the hell did she know that? "I'd like to think I've grown as a person." she spoke bravely.

"I certainly hope you have…"

The minions who had been driving the truck began to open the back door.

"…because you're about to make your professional debut as a jasundi in the biggest showcase in L.A." The door opened with Harmony saying, "Welcome to the Hollywood Bowl."

Harmony's loyal underlings pulled Willow out while she tried to get her mind around what was happening. "You're gonna raise evil here?"

"Nice, isn't it?" There was a shade of the old Harmony in her voice now. "They wanted to do it at the La Brea Tar Pits, but Ethan and I told them that for a ritual like this you need a little bit of show biz."

Willow barely heard the last part of it. She had fixed on the name Harmony had used. "Please don't tell me that you're working with—"

"You rang?" It had been more than three years since she had heard his voice, but Willow recognized the coolness and false friendliness that she had come to associate with Ethan Rayne.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she managed to spit out.

"At the moment, gloating. You know when they told me that for these raising we were going to have to find and hold the most powerful witch in the world, I expected that it would be… well, tough." He smiled. "I guess that I really did get my money's worth when I got those magic-negating rope."

"You gave… how… how did you get something like this?"

Ethan's smile grew even wider. "Ripper would be so shocked if he knew who had been going through the old Watcher stock rooms."

Willow was reeling after this implication. "How the hell?"

"As much as I'd like to see you like this, we do have a schedule to keep." Harmony turned towards Ethan. "The stage has been prepared?"

He took a bow. "Ready for opening night."

"All the artifacts that we need are here?"

Ethan revealed his left hand covered by something that was probably the Band of Tarquin. "Almost completely suited up."

Harmony nodded. "And I suppose representatives of the Fang Squad have shown up?"

He nodded." Quarter of an hour ago. I've sent the best and the brightest to keep them busy."

"Send as many as you can without leaving us unguarded." Harmony looked at her watch. "They'll only have to hold them off for another twenty minutes."

"What happens then?" Willow asked.

Ethan and Harmony both gave vicious grins.

"Your big debut."

**5:31:29 --- 5:31:30 --- 5:31:31**

Andrew had been training with Robin and Xander, on and off, for the past two months. However he hadn't been in a fight with this degree of danger and risk since, as he described it in his notes on Buffy's history, the Last Battle of The Hellmouth. He wasn't sure how well he was doing but he guessed the fact that he was still alive was a positive sign.

Right now he was fighting with a vampire and a big yellow slimy demon whose species was a mystery to him. Considering that he was only armed with a crossbow and an axe, and that he wasn't a Slayer, he was doing a good job holding them at arms length. He couldn't shake the feeling, however, that the two monsters were merely toying with him. If he was going to win, he needed to try something unexpected.

Mentally going over Robin's basic rules for killing a demon, he turned around and began to back off. The two evil-doers began following him. Suddenly he turned around and, in one swift motion, hurtled the axe at the demons head. For a split second, Andrew was positive that he had screwed it up but the demons reaction to his not running away slowed its motion just enough for the axe to strike it right between the eyes.

He barely had a moment to savor his victory. The vampire was still coming at him. He pulled out his crossbow and fired a bolt that struck the vamp in the chest-- but apparently not the heart. The vampire kept coming. Andrew had enough time to say "Oh shit" before the vampire had him tackled to the ground.

Knowing that he would only have one chance, he tried to push on the bolt while the vamp tried to lower its fangs into his neck. Andrew could feel the vamps hot breath on his neck and his teeth were almost at his throat when suddenly the head-- and the rest of it-- exploded into a pile of dust.

A little surprised that he had prevailed, he gingerly picked himself off the ground-- not noticing that the demon he had hit was standing, had pulled the axe out of its head and was running straight at him. He had barely enough time to react before the demon stopped running and fell at his feet.

He looked ahead and saw Wesley standing a few feet away from him, gun cocked. "You all right, Andrew?"

Trying to look nonchalant, he said "Five by five" before nearly tripping over his feet.

**5:35:18 --- 5:35:19 --- 5:35:20 --- 5:35:21**

When Dawn had called and given Buffy the Cliff Notes version of what had happened to the others over the past three hours, she wasn't sure what part had her the most worried: The fact that the enemy had gotten two of the relics ahead of them, the fact that they had not done the proper researching on the Stone, that Harmony--Harmony!-- was behind this plot or that Andrew had managed to do a better job of getting information then she had. She had much to mull over that, when Xander had insisted that he was driving the two of them (Lorne had opted to go back to the office) to the Hollywood Bowl, she had handed him the keys to the car without any argument.

That Willow was in the hands of the enemy didn't frighten the two people who she meant the most to. As Xander had put it, "You put Willow in a steel cage with a Bengal tiger, in three minutes the tiger would be begging for mercy." Willow could and would take care of herself. What did worry her was what Buffy remembered from the texts of Molochi-- the three people who would play a vital role in the rituals-- the warrior woman, the sleeping one and the one who unlocks. Indeed, it was the last which concerned her the most.

Now, as they drove the last mile or so to the Hollywood Bowl, she voiced the question that was troubling her.

"If Dawn was the person central to the rituals, why haven't they make an attempt to grab her?" she asked Xander.

"Well first of all, we don't who 'they' are," Xander said. "Second, maybe they know that we've got her safer than she'd be if she was in-- a vault." he finished weakly.

"Since when has a logical argument stopped a nasty from trying to cause destruction, particularly something of this level?"

Xander considered Buffy's question. "Never and the day after never," he finally answered.

"So maybe the thing that unlocks isn't Dawn," Buffy said. "Maybe it's something that we haven't seen before."

"Whatever it is I think we'd do a lot better if we never know what it is," Xander said. "Especially not now."

Buffy was about to argue when she realized that they were turning into the Hollywood Bowl parking lot. She'd have to put it on hold for a while. "Let's hope they don't have it either," she said.

The two of them got out of the car. As they walked down the path, she saw some familiar forms. Unfortunately their position concerned Buffy.

"What exactly are we hiding from?" she asked the group. Faith, Angel and Wesley, used to people moving inconspicuously around them, weren't fazed by Buffy's sudden appearance. Andrew, who still was getting used to it, did a quick double take before returning to his original position.

"We're not hiding, we're waiting for an opening," said Wesley. "In case you haven't noticed there's a rather large obstacle between us and the ritual."

Buffy looked ahead and saw that Wesley's talent for understatement was still intact. There were at least a dozen vampires guarding the area around the stage as well as a half dozen demons of various species and, most alarming of all to Buffy, six or seven normal (albeit heavily armed) people. "Well, give us a small tank and a couple of bulldozers and we should have no problem," she said as cheerfully as she could manage.

"It's not as dark as it looks," said Xander.

Faith looked at him. "We appreciate the optimism but I don't think it'll help."

"I was talking about the sky." Indeed the sky was turning purple.

"Sunrise is in less than fifteen minutes," said Angel.

"Don't you think that would concern them?" Xander said, gesturing towards the vamps.

Wesley looked ahead. "They do seem awfully calm about seeing their first and last sunrise."

"What do they know that we don't?" Faith asked.

"The Stone!" Everyone turned to Andrew. "Fred told me that it can be utilized to block the power of the sun! That's what this ritual is for!"

It hit the others like a thunderbolt. Wesley recovered first: "In that case we have to stop it now." He turned to Angel. "You have to get back to the car in case."

"In case what? If we don't stop this now, this whole thing could explode."

"If we do succeed, you'll be the one who's exploding," Xander pointed out. "As much as I don't like you, I don't think we can afford to lose you now."

"It's always good to know that I have your support--" Angel started.

"Could the two of you hold off this measuring contest until after the apocalypse?" Buffy said forcefully. "Angel, he's right and you know it. This has the potential to be a very bad day. It will not get any better if you turn into barbecue." She paused. "Get back to the car before it's too late."

"Guys," said Xander.

"What now Xander?" Faith demanded.

"I think it may already be too late."

They all turned to the stage. Buffy looked through the pair of binoculars that Wesley was carrying. Three figures had appeared on it. Buffy recognized all three. It had been more than three years but she recognized the man as Ethan Rayne. The blond woman was clearly Harmony. But it was the woman who was tied up that all eyes were drawn to. Not just because it was Willow. And not just because she was tied up.

It was because Willow's hair was slowly beginning to darken.

**5:45:34 --- 5:45:35 --- 5:45:36 --- 5:45:37**

Even though she was tied up and couldn't use her magic to save herself, even though she was stunned by who was bringing this ritual about, and even though she wasn't crazy about Harmony and Ethan's suggestion that she was going to cause the dysoniptia, Willow had managed to maintain a calm composure. She was in control of her powers and she was pretty sure no one-- especially not these two-- could make her do anything she didn't want to.

That calm remained even as two large vampires adjusted the rope so that her hands and feet were bound together.

"I don't know what Harmony told you but I'm not into this kind of thing," she joked. The vampires ignored her and carried her out onto the stage.

It was when she was on the stage proper that the first real warning bells began going off. Someone had been busy preparing the stage for something big. There were pentagrams and demonic symbols all over the place. What alarmed her was what was at the center of the stage. There, several symbols were carved in what she recognized as Wiccan-- but not the kind that she had practiced. It was a symbol for the darkest of dark magic.

Ethan appeared onstage. He was still wearing the glove that Willow thought was the Band of Tarquin. In his other hand was another piece of jewelry. She wasn't sure but she was thought it was the Pendant of Vartlet-- another of the artifacts that was critical for the ritual. According to legend the pendant was supposed to have the power to extract magic from the most unlikely places.

It was glowing-- not very brightly, but it seemed to sparkle in the brightening day. Suddenly a very nasty idea began to occur to her.

"You're going to use that pendant to access my power," she said.

Ethan gave a predatory grin. "Wrong again, Miss Rosenberg. I'm not _going_ to use it. I've _been_ using it. I've been using it to utilize your powers since Harmony drove up."

As he began closing the distance between himself and Willow the glow from the pendant began to increase. "As a matter of fact, I've used it to make sure that your friends won't be able to rescue you."

"What are you talking about?"

In answer Ethan picked up a knife that someone had left on stage and casually threw it towards the seats. The second it appeared to be leaving the stage, there was a burst of light. When it was gone, the knife was laying on the edge of the stage looking like it had been struck by lightning.

Ethan turned back towards Willow. "That should really light up your friends lives, wouldn't you say?" Before Willow could respond, he added: "Sorry if the puns aren't up to your usual standard. I haven't had much of a chance to practice."

Willow barely heard that last part. Something very bad was happening to her. She was having trouble seeing or hearing him. It was like she was slipping out of consciousness.

"Just relax," said Harmony. She was carrying a pink bauble in her hand. It looked familiar to Willow but she was having a great deal of trouble focusing on it. "Like they say at the dentist, you won't feel a thing."

Willow turned toward Ethan. "You… don't know… what you're about… to …let loose..." she managed to say.

Ethan smiled again. "Know? My dear, we're absolutely counting on it." And with that he placed the pendant around her neck.

Willow tried one last time to break free of the darkness that she knew was coming… And then it overwhelmed her.

**5:52:27 --- 5:52:28 --- 5:52:29**

The second Willow had appeared on the stage, Buffy realized that secrecy would have to be damned. The time for subtlety and guile was out the window. It was time for the all-out attack. When she began to make her move Wesley and Faith didn't raise any objections and readied to fight. They got from behind the enclosure and charged the crowd of enemies.

Buffy knew that this wasn't going to be easy. They were outnumbered four to one and, though two of them were Slayers, there was only so much she and Faith could do. That didn't concern her nearly as what was happening to Willow, however. Whatever Ethan and Harmony were trying to do by releasing the darkness within the powerful witch, there was a very good chance that they would kill Willow in the attempt.

Which was why when Buffy had knocked down her third demon, she bolted for the stage, running past and through anything that she could. It wasn't until she was nearly three feet away from the stage that she realized that there might be a reason there were only two guards around the perimeter of it-- and by then it was too late to stop.

1

She ran right into nothing. And that nothing hit her with a hell of a bang. Whatever shield they were using to guard the stage knocked her back-- right into another demon. A big red one.

Even if Buffy had been at a hundred percent the demon would have given her trouble. She put up the best fight that she could but it knocked her down in less than a minute.

"I love it when my dinner cooks itself for me," it said bending over her.

Summoning what she had in reserve, she kicked the demon in the stomach. It was knocked back-- right into the path of an arrow. The look of surprise on the demons face would have been comic under other circumstances.

Buffy looked to her left-- to see Giles was standing a few feet away with a crossbow. They had no time to celebrate or even acknowledge his arrival.

"We need to break this shield and we need to do it now!" Buffy yelled. Giles had no time to respond. In seconds he, like the others, was beset by enemies.

Buffy looked to the stage and was suddenly afraid. Willow's hair was now completely black . Her face and hands were filled with veins. A small blue field was surrounding her. Yet despite being tapped into her full power, Willow still appeared to be trapped on the altar. Furthermore Ethan Rayne was standing not ten feet away from her, reciting some spell without apparent fear or alarm.

"Doesn't feel so good, does it?" Buffy whirled around. There was a red-haired woman around her age standing across from her in a fighting posture. But when Buffy got ready to fight her, she pulled back. "We're not going to dance, bitch, not yet."

"What are you here for?' Buffy said.

"Just wanted to see the look on your face when it all starts to go to hell." The woman said. "Which, if I'm not mistaken, will be right…about…now."

Buffy looked toward the stage. The blue field that had appeared was now stretching towards Ethan's hands-- one of which had some kind of metal glove on it. Ethan took a deep breath and shouted something in a language Buffy didn't recognize. But she knew that it was important. Because when he finished, the magic suddenly flew from his hand and hit the small pink bauble that Harmony was holding. A huge flash of what could only be described as black light shot up through the sky, blinding Buffy.

When the smoke cleared, the pink bauble Harmony had carried was now floating in the air. The force of its glow shot up towards the sky. But it wasn't this or the triumph on Ethan's face or even the sight of a now apparently normal Willow that drew her attention.

No, her attention was drawn towards the figure that was in the center of the stage. He was slumped on the floor but even without seeing his face she recognized the blond hair and leather jacket. Suddenly she realized what had just happened.

The dysoniptia. Spike had been raised.

**5:59:57--- 5:59:58 --- 5:59:59 --- 6:00:00**


	7. 6AM to 7AM

Chapter 7

The following takes place between 6 AM and 7AM on the day of the Autumnal Equinox.

Giles could not believe what he was seeing-- only he was no longer looking at the stage. His attention was being spent trying to stay alive fending off three vampires was a real problem.

Why he was still defending himself was what he couldn't believe. The sun had peeked up over the horizon less than three minutes ago-- but the vampires had not experienced the fiery death that they should have.

It had been one of the nightmare scenarios of every Watcher before the Council had been destroyed, and it was still pretty high his greatest fears. They had to learn why now.

Unless, of course, he and his friends died right now which wasn't outside the realm of possibility. He could see that Buffy and Faith were on top of the creatures attacking them. The rest were in serious trouble even with Robin and himself there.

_In any case,_ he thought as one of the vampires nearly disarmed him, _I am almost certainly buggered_.

The vampire moved to deliver another blow-- and was then seized and whaled upon by a figure in black. In a matter of seconds the vamp was dust. Giles realized who it was, then realized that it was the daylight which had made him take so long to recognize the figure.

Angel looked up. "No reason only evil should benefit from this," he said as he helped Giles up.

"What the hell is going on here?" Giles asked.

"I don't know, but the people responsible are about to exit, stage right."

Indeed Harmony and Ethan were busy loosening or moving Spike and Willow, both of whom looked fairly out of it. Angel managed to fight his way through the monsters and start running _around _the stage hoping to get past the force field.

Things were looking a little brighter as a few of the active vampires and demons were leaving the fight in order to back up their bosses. Most of the people had disappeared too. But there was one exception. And it was beating the crap out of Wesley

"You know," the red haired woman was saying. "I never got a chance…to thank you…for locking me…in a cage…for a month!"

The way she was fighting told Giles that she was a Slayer. The way she was talking told him that she was Justine, the woman who Wesley had imprisoned in an effort to find Angel. Either way she was probably going to kill him.

Wesley must have known because he began to pull one of the guns he carried. But Justine was faster and kicked it out of his hand.

"Nice try. You think I'm going to let you bust a cap in my ass?" She moved in for the kill.

Until Faith charged her and knocked her back. As the two of them wrestled, Giles had time to think, _Faith defending Wesley. The world really is ending._

The two of them whirled around. "Ready for Round Two, bitch?" Justine said.

"Always, darlin'." Faith said, readying herself.

"You know you can't beat me."

Faith shrugged. "I'm a slow learner." Suddenly another figure blurred past her and tackled Justine again. "But I do catch on eventually."

Justine struggled to her feet to find that she had a Slayer on either side of her: Faith on her left, Buffy on her right. Justine would have been toast if she'd had to face both. Unfortunately the seven remaining vamps and demons left their prey and moved in to take on the two Slayers. As Giles moved in to try and help take out the vampires, he realized their chances of surviving this battle had improved. As for surviving the day…

He said a prayer for Angel.

**6:06:22 -- 6:06:23 -- 6:06:24**

Angel had managed to get around the stage but still saw no sign of Harmony, Ethan and the two prisoners. He had, however, found their second line of security forces.

"Sorry, nobody gets in without a backstage pass," said one of the three vampires moving in to pummel Angel.

"We got the go-ahead to dust this asshole?" asked another.

The first vamp nodded. "We got our guy; Angel has become expendable."

Despite being neck deep in shit, Angel realized that this might be his best chance to get some info. "So what the hell are you doing working for a human?" he said as he readied himself to fight.

"Hey, anybody who can put a sun shield around LA's my kind of guy, warm or cold." The head vampire _was _good: he was able to talk and fight simultaneously.

"That's what the whole light show was for?"

The vampire shrugged as he landed a punch to the gut. "Guy said he needed to get a vampire with a soul." He dodged Angel's blows. "Guess he figured it would be easier to raise the undead rather than convince you to come back to the dark side." And with that he kicked Angel squarely in the groin.

The blow knocked the wind out of him and he fell to the ground. All three vamps crowded around Angel. "This has been a nice chat, but I'd say your time has…expired."

They moved in-- and then the first vamp was dusted. Before the other two could react, they were dust as well.

Angel looked around for his savior-- only to find no one. He was perplexed until he looked straight ahead.

And saw a small stick floating in the air.

For a second he was baffled. Then it hit him.

Maybe Willow wasn't as far gone as they had thought.

Maybe they could still win.

**6:10:41 -- 6:10:42 -- 6:10:43 -- 6:10:44**

It was colder.

That was all that his mind could focus on. With the rest of him on sensory overload he could only focus on how cool it was. He couldn't remember where he had come from, but it looked like or sounded like but it had definitely been hot. He couldn't remember ever having been as hot.

Now it was cool. A breeze was blowing-- the first that he had felt in forever. He wished he knew where he was. He had tried opening his eyes but all he could see was blurred.

"William?"

A male voice. A strange one. It sounded English. He wondered if this was another of their tricks. He had heard a lot of British voices where…where he had been… But he had known all of them before. He had recognized the screams. He didn't know this one.

"William?"

Who was this bugger who seemed to know him personally though he'd never heard the voice before.

He managed to speak though it seemed like his lips were dipped in wax. "Who… are you?"

He felt a strong hand grip his shoulder. "The one who brought you back."

"Why can't I… see you?"

"Your eyes haven't seen light in a very long time. They'll adjust soon." The voice paused. "Hopefully along with the rest of you."

He tried opening his eyes again-- and then he saw something that he shouldn't have ever seen.

"What… what's that?"

The voices tone didn't change but Spike thought it seemed amused. "I guess it has been awhile since you've seen the sun."

"Then…how…how…"

"A very special sunscreen."

"You…you think this is…bloody funny?"

The voice became serious again. "No. No, there's nothing funny about any of this."

"Where the he-- Where am I?"

"Los Angeles. Definitely an improvement on where you were, if not by much. "

"But I…I …"

"Died?" Again the voice sounded amused. "I know your memory is still a bit spotty, but you've died before and came back from that. Are you really that surprised that it could happen again?"

Suddenly it seemed very important that he see the face of the man who had…rescued him. He blinked several times and found himself finally able to focus.

The man was tall and broad–shouldered with grey eyes. His face _seemed_ benign enough but there was something in his eyes that Spike didn't trust. He didn't recognize him. But he did recognize the woman who was sitting in the corner opposite to him. "Willow? Red, is that you?"

No response. She seemed to be in only marginally better shape than he was. He tried to get to his feet but his legs seemed to weigh a ton. He fell back to the ground.

"I wouldn't try walking yet. Don't worry, you should get your strength back soon enough."

"Who are you? Why was I brought back?"

The man gave him a smile that he just didn't like. "My name is Ethan. And we brought you back William, because you still have a great destiny to fulfill."

**6:15:59 -- 6:16:00 -- 6:16:01**

Angel had hoped that, given the way the three vampires had died, Willow might actually be awake, perhaps helping fight the other bad guys. That wish was dashed when he managed to make it to a clearing and found that the only ones there were whatever subordinates Ethan and Harmony had managed to assemble. And there were a bunch of them-- at least ten vampires and demons and humans, oh my.

At least this time he had a goal. The evil contingent was standing around a large black truck. And Angel could see that there was at least one bleached blonde sitting inside. He wasn't wild about having to save Spike, but he realized that these were desperate times and extreme measures were clearly called for

He considered calling for backup but rejected the idea. For one thing, given the fight the others were in, they probably wouldn't be able to break away. More importantly, he didn't think he would have the time (he wasn't sure why the truck was still there). But mostly he wasn't sure how to use his cell phone. And quite frankly, given the choice between fighting a crowd of demons and trying to figure how the autodial worked, he'd take his chances with the demons.

Deciding that the time for subtlety and guile had passed, Angel ran towards the throng of evildoers. Fortunately three of them were busy loading the truck which meant he only had to face seven heavily armed, primed to kill fighters-- which was still four too many in his opinion.

The first to challenge him was a large gray demon who easily dodged the first three punches Angel threw at him.

"I gotta say Harmony and Ethan really are getting a better class of help," Angel said as he danced with the demon. "Where'd they find you?"

"I was working at Pottery Barn. Do you really think I'm gonna fall for this shit?" the demon said without missing a step.

"I don't know but—" He seized the opportunity and knocked the demon upside the head "-- nine times out of ten, it works."

He looked towards the back of the truck…where Ethan Rayne was pulling the door shut. "GO!" Ethan yelled and the truck began pulling out.

Angel ran towards it-- and fell when he was knocked upside the head. He turned around to see the big gray demon standing over him looking pretty pissed.

"I guess this was the tenth time," the demon said as it and three others began coming towards Angel.

"Well, this day is really starting to suck," Angel said as he got ready to fight.

**6:22:33 -- 6:22:34 -- 6:22:35 -- 6:22:36**

Buffy hadn't thought it would take so long to get rid of the bad guys but she had been having trouble adjusting to fighting in the daytime. In her seven plus years as a Slayer she didn't think she had battled in the sunlight more than a dozen times and when she had it had usually been inside. She was pretty sure that most of the others were having similar problems. None of them were used to fighting while being blinded by the sun.

The vampires went fast-- they had even less experience fighting in daylight than she did. The demons were a bigger problem. Literally. The two they were fighting had to be more than seven feet tall. That was more of a problem for her as the one she was facing also seemed to have some kind of plate protecting his chest.. She was having a lot of trouble finding soft spots to hit and the demon knew it.

"Should I get a stepladder or do you want me bend down?" it said without missing a beat.

"I'm the Slayer. I'm the one who makes the witty comments," Buffy replied indignantly.

"Well, when I kill you I'll be sure to make sure your last words get into Burnett's."

Buffy saw an opening and, as the demon lunged, she slammed one of her stake hard into the demon's neck. "Its Bartlet's you ignoramus," she told the monster as it gagged its last breath. After making sure that it was dead, she whirled around to face the next challenge only to find there were none.

"Are they all dead?" she shouted to Xander.

"As doornails," Xander replied, "which is ironic because the doornails have a new lease on life."

"There's one still standing," Robin interrupted.

And there was. Faith and Justine were standing a few feet apart in fighting stances.

"Déjà vu all over again," said Faith. "Now are you ready for round two?"

"As I recall last time I thrashed your white trash ass," Justine spat back, moving in.

"I also remember that you had a chance to take me out and you left me alive," Faith said. "You're not as cold as you think you are. I don't think you're cut out for this."

If the remarks affected Justine, it didn't show. "You gonna fight or just talk me to death?" Without waiting for an answer, she swung at Faith.

Buffy figured it was time she helped her fellow Slayer. "Robin, Giles catch up with Angel. See if he needs help."

The two men took off. But they weren't the only ones affected by her remarks. Though it only lasted a second Buffy had seen Justine react to Angel's name.

_Maybe I can use that,_ she thought as she moved in to take on Justine.

**6:27:11 -- 6:27:12 -- 6:27:13**

Robin had been dealing with the possibility that he was going to be dead a lot sooner than he wanted in the only way he could: doing things that could potentially end his life a lot quicker. The situation was ironic but it was of his own choosing.

As Giles drive them to the Hollywood Bowl he had insisted that Robin shouldn't be doing this. "If your condition worsens suddenly, you could make a mistake that could be dangerous." It was a rather cold but rational approach to the day ahead.

Robin thought about it for a moment. "When I start feeling terrible I'll—" he couldn't say the correct words "--take myself out of the game. I'll work back at Wolfram & Hart if I have too. But as long as I can be helpful you need every able body that you can get."

Giles tried another tack. "You should be spending your time with the people who care about you…"

"The people who care about me are here." For the first time since he'd learned about his condition he had thought about some of his friends-- particularly Faith. It would really hurt her. But there wasn't any way around it. "I want you to promise that you won't tell anyone about me as long as you can. They don't need the distraction."

Giles had reluctantly agreed.

The thing was he felt all right . He wasn't in any pain and all his senses were working. He had managed to fight the demons and the vamps without any ill effects. And as long as he was concentrating on causing pain, he could forget about what was probably coming for him.

All of which was regulated to a very small corner of his mind when he caught up with Angel who, at the moment was barely staying alive from the wave of nasties pummeling him.

That at least he could fix. "Come on," he yelled to Giles as he charged into the fray.

In a matter of seconds he was standing behind the big gray demon that had been dealing out the most damage. It was concentrating so intently on Angel that it didn't notice Robin was there until he had delivered enough blows to knock it down. Before the demon could turn Robin had managed to pierce its back with a knife.

Angel barely had enough time to get to his feet before one of the four remaining fighters -- a vampire-- began whaling on Robin. By comparison, it was a breeze. It was dead in less than a minute.

Finished, Robin looked around for anyone else to fight only to find that Giles and Angel had managed to handle those that had stayed.

Angel walked over to him. "You okay?" Robin went through a bad few seconds before he realized that it was an innocent question.

"For now," he said calmly.

Giles joined them. "Where are Harmony and Ethan?" There was real distaste in his tone that Robin didn't understand. "Where did they go?"

"East," said Angel, "down Hollywood Boulevard. We've gotta call Fred and Dawn."

"You have an idea where they're going?" asked Robin.

"No, but I've got the license number of the truck they drove off in," Angel said. "Maybe with the technology we've got we can track them down."

"We'd better hurry," said Giles. "We have less than six hours before they perform the eutrasia. This ritual gave evil the daytime. I don't think we want to find out what the next one does."

Robin pulled out his cell phone and dialed. Time wasn't on anybody's side today. He hoped that it would be kinder to them then to him.

**6:34:39 -- 6:34:40 -- 6:34:41 -- 6:34:42**

Willow had been taken over by darkness before. On those occasions a small part of herself-- the "real" Willow-- had not disappeared as much as faded into the background. It had been like she had been trying with all her will to stop herself from doing those things but was blotted out by the evil within her.

This had been nothing like that. The instant Ethan had put the Pendant of Varlet around her neck it was as if she wasn't there any more. Whatever it was that they needed her to do, she had no memory of it at all. What she did remember was fighting against it with everything she had. And failing.

Her next memory had been of seeing Angel trying to rescue her and being overtaken by several vamps. She remembered trying as hard as she could to help him, she remembered focusing her power-- and then the blankness overtook her again.

She finally regained some control of her senses when she felt a faint breeze against her face. Willow opened her eyes and found that she was still hog-tied but now she was in the back of a truck, one that was apparently moving.

She looked around for Harmony or Ethan and found neither. What there were were three very tall and menacing figures. If she were at full strength she would have been able to take them all out without straining a muscle. But the way she felt now she didn't think that she could float a pencil at them.

She looked around and saw something else that shouldn't have been possible. There, across from her in the corner, was Spike. And he looked only marginally stronger than she felt.

"Spike?" Speaking made her feel like she had to take a nap.

The blond vampire heard her though. "You back with us, Red?" He was speaking with a great deal of effort as well. Somehow that made Willow feel a little better but not much.

"Where… where did you come from?"

Spike considered the question. "Can't quite remember, luv." He thought for a moment. "Wasn't Philadelphia, that's for damn sure."

Her mind was still operating slowly because it took her a few seconds to put two and two together. "The… dys--dysoniptia.. You're what they made me -- made me raise."

Spike looked at her funny. "Made you? Last I checked, no one could make _you _do anything. How the bloody hell…"

"They-- they put this pendant--" She touched her neck and found it wasn't there anymore. "What the… what the hell…did they do with it?"

"Don't know. But do you have any idea who 'they' are. I don't recognize anybody here and I'd like to know who I have to thank--or hurt." he added almost as an afterthought.

It took her a minute to remember. "Ethan Rayne and H… Harmony, I think."

That name had an effect on Spike. "Harmony? Harmony did this?"

"I…I think so."

Spike considered this. "Wherever I was, is there any way I can go back?"

**6:40:12 -- 6:40:13 -- 6:40:14**

As Leonard looked over the latest computerized traffic photographs, hoping for any sign of the truck Willow and Spike were in, he found himself wondering at the behavior of Fate or God or whatever it was that had brought him here.

When he had finally agreed to join Angel-Slayer Inc., he had done so with great reluctance. Though his visions had given him a great deal of insight into the bravery of the Fearless Vampire Hunters (his name for them; he would not call them the Scoobies no matter how many times they used the word), he was absolutely sure that he had no business being in the same room with them let alone fighting on their side. Nevertheless they had convinced him, or he had convinced himself, that they would need him on that day.

Now the day had apparently come-- and he was on the bench. If this was the evil thing that he had foreseen, and Leonard admitted that they dealt with enough nasties normally so that it was possible that it wasn't, whatever it was that sent him the visions was apparently on vacation.

He wasn't exactly having a day off. First he had spent half an hour calling all the help they could get, then after help had gotten there he had spent an hour and a half looking for information on artifacts that were key to the rituals. He had then spent another hour working with Gunn, who had come back to help bolster defenses, trying to help track Willow down. But all the information that he was getting about the great evil going to burst forward today was coming to him secondhand. A small part of him was glad that he was "safe," relatively, but part of him really did want to do more than look at still photos of traffic stops.

Speaking of which: "Fred!"

The young woman finished speaking with Dawn and came over to him. "Anything?"

Leonard shook his head. "They're not heading down Sunset that's for sure. Any luck anywhere else?"

Fred shrugged. "There are a lot of roads leading out of the Hollywood Bowl and those are only the ones that we can see using the California Highway System. It could take hours to track them down, and we don't have that kind of time."

"There must be—" Leonard never finished the sentence. Quickly he felt his body grow cold. Then his vision darkened and his head snapped back on his neck. To an outsider it might have looked like he was having a seizure. Fred, who had seen these kind of things, was still a little concerned. She might have become more so had his eyes not suddenly refocused.

Fred waited as long as she dared-- about twenty seconds-- before finally touching him on the shoulder. "Leonard?"

For a moment he couldn't speak-- and then he could. "Fred."

"Was that a…"

"Yes it was," he answered promptly

"What did the vision tell you?"

"One of the next targets of whoever's behind this," he said.

"Where are they going to attack?" Fred was concerned and grew exponentially more so when she heard his answer.

"Here. They're coming here."

**6:47:24 -- 6:47:25 -- 6:47:26 -- 6:47:27**

Theoretically the battle between Buffy, Faith and Justine should not have taken so long. It was simple arithmetic-- two experienced Slayers should have been able to take one recently promoted one. And, even acknowledging how difficult it was to fight a Slayer, both Faith and Buffy had done it before and should have been prepared.

But Justine was proving herself to be a very cagey opponent. No matter what position the other two Slayers took, somehow Justine managed to get between them. Every time Buffy and Faith tried to synchronize their fighting, Justine would throw a punch or a kick that managed to throw them off their game.

Now, as they circled each other for the fourth time, Angel concluded it was time to bring this fight to an end. And he knew exactly how.

"Justine!" he shouted. Neither of the "good" Slayers reacted. Justine didn't break her pose either. But she managed to glance at Angel without breaking stride. This wasn't going to be easy. "Don't you like me any more?"

"Nice try," she yelled. "But you're not gonna stop me from taking care of both your girlfriends." Both Buffy and Faith reacted by trying to hit her. Justine dodged both blows. "I don't know which one you care about more but you're not going to have either when I'm done."

Angel wasn't sure how to react. Fortunately, Faith beat him to it. "That trick never worked when I tried it. What makes you think that it'll work now?" She punctuated her remarks with three quick blows.

"Besides, we both know that the real reason you're doing this is that you want Angel for yourself," said Buffy calmly.

That rocked Justine though she seemed to recover. "That a prerequisite for being a Slayer? You want to fuck the undead?"

"Well," said Faith, "slaying used to make me horny." She flashed a sly look at Justine. "Did I mention that you're a very pretty girl?"

"I know what you're trying to do," she said. "Won't work. I'm going to get rid of both of you. Then I'm going to finish my business with Angelus." She finished this by kicking Faith in the chest, knocking her down.

"You really think that you can handle all three of us?" said Angel.

Justine continued to speak though she kept focusing her attention on Buffy. "I'm doing a pretty good job--" She dodged Buffy's next blow. "--of taking you out one at a time. And when I'm finished there will be nothing that can stop what's coming." She moved in to take down Buffy. "Noth—"

A loud bang stopped her from finishing. Suddenly the red-headed woman was bleeding from her knee. At the same time, Buffy finished kicking her in the stomach. The combo knocked her down. When she was, everybody looked to the east.

Wesley stood there with his gun in his left hand.

"Not that I mind the help, but what the hell were you thinking Wes?" Buffy demanded. "You could have hit me."

Wesley didn't speak. Faith ran to him. "Wesley, don't do this." He pushed Faith aside and kept walking until he was standing over Justine.

"Wes, I know what you're thinking but you can't do this," said Angel. "She's the only person who can tell us what Harmony and Ethan are planning."

"She's not going to tell us anything." Wes spoke in a normal, conversational tone. "We'd only be wasting time."

"You don't know that," said Xander.

"It took a month of being locked in a cage before she told me where she had dumped Angel." Wesley's tone was getting flatter. "And that was before she got Slayer strength. We have five hours to stop this raising; we can't spend it on her."

By now Wesley was standing three feet away from Justine. There was no way Faith, Buffy or any of them could stop Wes from firing a shot.

Then suddenly from Wesley's left: "Don't do it." Andrew had cocked his crossbow at Wes. His hands were shaking but his voice was firm. "Put down the gun."

Wes didn't even look at him. "Andrew, stay out of this."

"Not gonna happen, Wes. You aren't going to do this."

"Get vengeance?"

"Join the club." Though he didn't shift his position Wes did change expression. "It's pretty exclusive. Only thing is, none of the members want to belong. Right, Faith?"

For a second Faith didn't seem to know what Andrew was talking about -- and then she got it. "Trust me Wes, you don't want to learn the secret handshake to this one."

That seemed to get Wes but he didn't move. "You think you were in a dark place after she cut your throat?" Angel didn't think this was a good subject to bring up but he let Andrew keep talking. "It's nothing compared to the Calcutta you're going to if you kill her. Once you taste blood, you almost never go back. You can't do this Wes. She's not worth it."

For what seemed to be a very long time Wesley just stood there not moving. Buffy or Faith could probably have taken the gun from him but they both knew that Wes had to do this himself. Finally Wes lowered the gun. The instant he did Angel and Faith grabbed Justine and had her secure in a matter of seconds.

Buffy looked at Angel. "How do we play this?"

Angel looked at Giles and Xander. "The two of you take Justine back to Wolfram & Hart. Tell Fred to break out her chemistry set. Faith, you or Buffy should go too."

"We can handle her," said Xander indignantly.

Angel doubted that but merely said, "Better safe than gutted."

"I'll go," Faith offered. "We need to check in with them anyway."

"What about Willow and Spike?" asked Buffy. "We have to rescue them."

"The people at Wolfram & Hart are trying to track the truck they took as we speak," said Robin. "Some of us should probably get ready to try and retrace it."

"Whatever we do, we've got to hurry," said Buffy. "They're already two steps ahead of us and we have to get them before they make their next move."

One of the vampires in the group walked to the leader. "Okay, I guess I understand why they weren't worried about doing this in broad daylight." He looked out the window. "When do we go?"

The vamp looked at his watch. "One hour and we charge the place."

Now he looked at the building across from his window. At the sign which still read: "WOLFRAM & HART: ATTORNEYS AT LAW

**6:59:57 -- 6:59:58 -- 6:59:59 -- 7:00:00**


	8. 7AM to 8AM

Chapter 8

The following takes place between 7 am and 8 am on the day of the Autumnal Equinox.

In the end Faith decided to go along with Giles and Xander to bring Justine back to Wolfram Hart. Andrew also elected to go with them. He'd had enough excitement for a while and thought that he could do more good back there.

Buffy and Angel decided to try and rescue Willow and Spike. Angel had asked for the keys to his car back and Andrew gave them to him, hoping that he hadn't dented anything or ruined an internal part. Wesley finally seemed to have gotten past whatever problem he'd had dealing with Justine and said he'd use his car to try and find an alternate route. Robin said that he would go with him. For some reason Giles appeared to object but he wouldn't say why.

So they left: Giles in the front seat, Faith and Andrew in the back guarding Justine. Xander was taking Giles's car back. Though Justine had been tied up and she had a Slayer between her and the door, Andrew was still pretty nervous about traveling with her. He knew as well any of them how dangerous a Slayer could be. So he knew he had to keep a calm attitude.

"Why did you save me?" Justine asked suddenly. If he hadn't been buckled in, Andrew might have jumped to his feet. He wasn't the only one surprised by the question; Faith looked a little shocked as well.

Andrew gathered himself. "I didn't do it for you," he said as boldly as he could manage. "Killing a person is a road that no one should go down unless it's absolutely necessary." Then he looked at her. "But you should know that by now."

"Now it's my turn," said Faith. "Why didn't you kill me when you had the chance?"

Justine had a good poker face. "I had a schedule to keep to."

"Really?" said Faith in a "you're shitting me" tone.

"Besides, I couldn't risk killing you until I knew for sure that you weren't that warrior woman we needed."

"So you knew about the prophecy," Giles interjected.

"No, I was waiting in the warehouse at three in the morning because I like jewelry." Justine snorted. "Of course I knew about it."

"How did you get involved with the likes of Harmony and Ethan Rayne?" Giles asked.

Justine was silent.

"Why did you get involved with anything this evil in the first place?" asked Faith. "I know I'm not the best example, but Slayers are supposed to help protect the world, not destroy it."

"The prophecy doesn't say the world will be destroyed. It says that it will be substantially altered." said Justine. "For all you know, these rituals could make this world a better place."

Andrew exchanged a look with Faith. "You really think rituals of evil can make the world a better place?"

. "Good. Evil." Justine practically spat out the words. "They're all relative terms that people make up. They don't apply to people like Harmony or Ethan. Or people like me." Justine looked ahead. "We're special."

"That's the kind of thinking that led to the Nazis," said ANdrew. "Really want them as a role model?"

"You don't understand at all," said Justine. "But you will. Soon enough."

**7:05:46 - 7:05:47- 7:05:48**

Angel had been having all kinds of nightmares of what Andrew might have been doing to his car over the past few hours, and so he was relieved to find it intact. He had not, however, expected to find a stranger handcuffed in the passenger seat. "I'd think Andrew would know better than to pick up a stranger." he said.

Buffy looked at the man. "I don't think they picked this guy up voluntarily." "Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?"

"My…my name is Kevin Isaacson. Thank God. Thank God, I thought they'd left me to die."

"Wait a minute," Wesley spoke for the first time since the confrontation with Justine. "Aren't you one of the people Faith and Andrew found while trying to get the Stone of Meligan?"

"Uh yeah." Kevin tried to look abashed. "I'm sorry, I realize what a mistake I made and I'll do anything I can to help."

Suddenly Angel began to feel that they might have a chance again. "Anything? Do you know where Harmony and Ethan Rayne are hiding out?"

"Ethan was hiding out in Bel Air until a few days ago. I don't know who this Harmony chick is." Angel looked at Kevin sourly. "I swear I never heard of this girl!"

"Where in Bel Air?"

"Near Brentwood. But he told me he wasn't going to be there anymore."

Angel turned towards the others. "Bel Air is ten miles west of here. When they drove off they were heading east down Hollywood Boulevard."

"They could have doubled back." said Robin.

"Or they may have moved their base of operations," said Wesley. "There's no guarantee we'll find them there."

"If he's right," said Buffy, "we might be able to stop them before the east…eurst…the second raising."

They all thought for a second. "We split up again." said Angel. "Buffy, call Fred and Gunn and see if they've made any progress tracking the truck down."

"All right." Buffy took out her phone. "Robin, you're riding with me."

"No problem."

"Wes, you and I are going to Brentwood." said Angel. " If he's right we'll get back-up and crash."

"And if he's wrong?" said Wes.

Angel looked towards Kevin. "He's going in first either way. One way or the other, we're walking out whole."

**7:09:23 - 7:09:24 - 7:09:25 - 7:09:26**

One of the mildest effects of being a master wielder of black magic was that Willow could not wear a watch. The energy that permeated Willow's veins was so powerful it affected the magnetic or electronic capacity of any clock she tried to keep on her body. She had been trying to rely on other methods to gauge the passage of time but had so far only had modest success, and so had no idea how long they had been driving. Furthermore, she had no clear idea what direction they were heading or what route they were taking. She knew that the eutrasia- whatever that consisted of- needed to take place in Los Angeles but it was a big city. They could be anywhere.

"Spike, do you have any idea where we are?" she asked desperately.

The vampire thought for a second. "Well, my X-ray vision tells me that we went through the mountains and I can hear the sound of the ocean. So I'm thinking we're in Alaska. Which is nice 'cause I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights."

Willow wanted to react angrily to Spike's behavior but she was so drained and worn out that she started chuckling. Spike looked at her oddly for a moment and then snickered as well.

"The two of us were once considered the best at our jobs" she said.

"Yet here we are hog-tied, being dragged all over the state by Harmony-bloody-Kendall." Spike shook his head and gave a sarcastic chuckle. "I'm out in the sun for the first time in a hundred years and I'm spending it in a goddamn truck."

"I gotta say your taste in women, right now…it's worse than Buffy's in men," Willow added with a chuckle. Nothing about the situation was funny and yet it all seemed so ridiculous.

That made Spike serious. "Buffy, is she—"

"She's okay." Willow grew a little sober. "It hasn't been the easiest four months—"

"Four months? That's all?" asked Spike, incredulous. "Bloody hell." He thought for a moment. "Which, now that I think about it, is exactly where I was."

Willow was surprised that Spike could be so blasé about where he'd been. "That's… that's where…"

Spike gave a half-smile. "Come on Red, one noble sacrifice doesn't erase a hundred and twenty years of being a soulless killer."

Willow didn't want to ask the next question- it would be painful, and was irrelevant to what was happening- but she had to know. "How…how bad was it?"

Spike reflected for a few seconds. "Stalag 17 without the wacky Germans."

Suddenly the back of the truck opened. Spike tried to duck back into the shadows before he remembered the sun couldn't hurt him

"Hey kids, we've made it to Grandma's house," announced Ethan.

**7:14:59 - 7:15:00 - 7:15:01**

As Fred waited for Gunn to come back from his sweep of the building, she couldn't help thinking, for what seemed like the fortieth time, how much she wished Angel or Giles or Wesley had stayed behind and headed operations from Angel-Slayer. It wasn't because she had severe doubts in her abilities to handle things from home base-although she did think that someone else might have been more capable to deal with the organized confusion. But she knew more about the prophecy than, say, Xander or Faith. She might have been able to realize what the Stone of Meligan was before Faith had, and knowing that they may have figured out who was going to be raised in the dysonipta.. And despite being in the weapons and science department, she didn't have nearly as good a mind about keeping the building protected. She knew she was doing everything in her power, but she was worried it wasn't enough.

Gunn reappeared. "Okay. Sweep's done. As far as we can tell no one's in the building that shouldn't be." He sighed. "Of course since there are at least three hundred people working here there is a possibility that we could be wrong."

"Yeah, and that's without considering the possibility that there's someone on the inside." Fred looked at Gunn. "You've secured every entrance and exit?"

Gunn nodded. "All of them are now guarded by a Slayer in addition to the security system. Which would be encouraging if we hadn't broken in so many times."

Fred smiled. "I never thought I'd look back at that as the good old days."

"I know, " Gunn said with an answering smile. "Man, we have strange lives." His expression turned serious again: "Did we get anywhere on the traffic photographs?"

"We got pictures of them near Silver Lake, Dodger Stadium and Chinatown."

"So they're heading west. We just don't know where yet."

"Hopefully, we'll be able to figure it out soon." Fred looked at her watch. "Faith and Giles will be back with Justine any minute now."

"I don't get it. When Justine was working with Holtz she thought she was doing good, in her mind at least."

Fred saw where Charles was going. "Long way from there to destroying the world."

"Pretty big leap."

"I don't get it either. But I may find out." Noting Gunn's questioning look, she said, "A lot of the devices and pharmaceuticals we manufacture are used in medical studies to measure responses to pain. I never had much stomach for using them, but on Justine…" Fred shook her head. "Does my wanting to do this make me a bad person?"

Gunn considered it. "I feel the same way about her. Besides, she's a Slayer now. It probably won't bother her as much. "

"I know. Well time is of the essence, so I'd better get going. You'll keep me and the others updated about the security?"

"Sure thing." Fred was about to leave when Gunn asked: "By the way, did Leonard's vision give us any hint why they're going to attack us?"

"I'm not sure, but if I had to guess I'd think they're after her."

Gunn followed her gaze.

To the occupied Dawn.

**7:23:28 - 7:23:29 - 7:23:30 - 7:23:31**

Not only were the magic-proof ropes that Harmony had used to bind Willow still around her hands and chest, but they also apparently worked very well on vampires. Either that or Spike was too exhausted from his journey to break free. He was still dazed, and two of the henchman guarding him had practically carried him to the center of the large building they were in.

They were being guarded by ten heavily armed henchmen. Some of them had to be men: there was no way any vampire could hold the crucifix they had near Spike.

Since escaping seemed to be out of the question, Willow had been racking her brain trying to think of something, anything that would help her figure out where they had gone based on. She figured that they had been going west down the freeway for maybe half an hour but that could bring them anywhere.

There was also no way to know where they were now. It was a warehouse but it could be anywhere from Watts to Burbank. It would probably take hours for the others to find them- long enough to raise whatever was coming at noon.

"Willow?" Spike's whisper interrupted her from her trance.

"Yeah?"

"That bloke with Harmony is Ethan Rayne, right?"

Willow remembered that the two had never met. "Yeah."

"And the other guy? The one talking with both of them."

Willow looked straight ahead. To Harmony's left was a man she'd never seen before. He was tall with red hair and gray eyes and, unlike Ethan, was wearing a jacket and tie. Willow had no idea who the man was, but she had known even before she came to LA that men in suits were not to be trusted.

There were three of them now engaged in a conversation. Though Willow strained she could only hear every third or fourth word. No way for her to tell what they were saying, but maybe-

"Spike? " She had to repeat herself, Spike was still out of it. "Do you understand what they're saying?"

Spike did even move his head. "They're talking about getting what they need for the- Eustachia?"

For a moment Willow was baffled but she interpreted. "Eutrasia. It's a dark ritual."

Spike winced. "Of course it is. Can't bring a bunch of bad people together without having a bloody dark ritual."

Though Willow was tired of it too, she knew this was no time to complain. "What about the ritual? What are they trying to raise?"

Spike listened. "Can't tell," he finally said. "They keep saying 'wake her' but they don't mention names." Spike's eyes widened. "Wait a tick. They just said that they were going to get the last one in less than half an hour."

"Who are they talking about?" But Willow had a good idea.

"They're talking about getting the key."

**7:28:33 - 7:28:34 - 7:28:35**

Giles finally breathed easy when he pulled up in front of the Wolfram Hart building. Despite his apprehensions at the beginning of the day, he still didn't scare very easily. However, the idea of having a rogue Slayer in the car had made him feel like he was carrying a box full of nitroglycerin over a long stretch of bumpy road.

He was also relieved to see that Kennedy and Patrice had come down to help make sure Justine didn't decide to get lively.

"We've arrived," he said more for her benefit than anyone else in the car. Justine had clammed up after a while despite repeated questioning and threats that things would be a lot more uncomfortable for her when they got here. Nothing had penetrated her shell. He believed it was time to put bio-chemistry to better use.

Andrew got out of the car first, then Justine with Faith right behind her. The young man then moved aside to let both Slayers get on either side of her.

"Last chance, Justine," said Faith. "Talk or the bullet in your knee is going to seem like a mosquito bite. "

The redhead maintained her silence.

Faith shrugged. "Don't say we didn't warn you." The group began walking to the front doors.

"What are we doing to protect against whatever's going to happen in Leonard's vision?" Giles asked. Fred had called en route to update them on what was happening at Angel-Slayer Inc.

"Right now every access point is being guarded by a Slayer and someone on the security team." said Kennedy. She then winced. "Great. Now I'm talking like I'm in the army."

"Good," Andrew spoke up from his position behind Justine, "we need to think like we're the marines. Like or not, this is war."

It was the right sentiment but Giles had had a lot of first-hand knowledge with how the military worked. He didn't want to use them as a model. Still Andrew was basically right.

"How sure are we that we're secure?" he finally asked.

"Not very," admitted Kennedy as they walked up to the door. "Which is why Cho-San and I are going back to patrolling the second we've get Jean Grey here secured."

Giles didn't understand the reference but wasn't going to ask. For one thing the explanation would be irrelevant. More importantly they needed to be very alert. Right now his senses were telling him that someone was watching them.

Someone not on their side.

**7:33:39 - 7:33:40 - 7:33:41 - 7:33:42**

Kevin had been so willing to give directions to find Ethan's apartment that Wesley had thought that it was very likely that he was either misleading them or luring them into a trap. When he mentioned it to Angel, the vampire had said that he thought it possible as well- with one key difference.

"This guy, he's a low-level grunt." Angel had glanced back as Kevin.

"They probably only told him what he absolutely needed to know. He doesn't know what the rituals were supposed to raise, what materials they need, not even whatever great evil that's supposed to be brought forth. They're not going to lie to him about important things because they're not going to _tell_ him important things. He knows the location of this hideout because they didn't take him to the major hideout. That's how much they trust him.

"You're sure?" asked Wesley.

Angel looked straight ahead. "It's how Angelus would handle the same situation."

Wesley wasn't entirely sure that that was true, but he believed Angel's assessment was probably right. He was also relatively sure Ethan and Harmony wouldn't be there, but that there might be some clue as to what else they had planned. So he let Kevin give them directions to an apartment complex just outside of Century City in Bel Air.

They stopped the car and considered their next move. "So this is the last place where you met Ethan Rayne," Wesley said.

Kevin nodded. "He rented out the studio apartment on the first floor."

Wesley was about to get out of the car when Angel said: "Wait."

"What's the problem?"

Angel gestured to the left. Wes looked and saw the security camera perched on the top of the door. "Of course," he sighed. "How do we handle this?"

Angel though for a few seconds. "Go around to the side and get Mr. Isaacson out."

Wesley did as Angel requested, being sure to keep his gun in plain sight of the prisoner.

Angel got out of the car and walked around to the side. "I'll take him up to the front. The cameras can't see me. If they're watching us, they won't know I'm coming. When they open the door, I'll find out who's who and what's what."

"And if it's a trap?"

Angel paused. "Be ready to come running." He turned to Kevin. "Mr. Isaacson for the next thirty seconds, you are not going to be held. You may think about running or giving the people inside a warning. Keep this in mind: I'm going to be less than three feet behind you and I can kill you the second you try either. Do you understand?'

"Yes, sir," said Kevin.

They walked towards the front door, moving steadily but not quickly. In less than thirty seconds they were at the door.

As Wesley watched he couldn't help but think that this had all the makings of a set-up. He was sure that the enemy (whoever they were) were waiting to kill Angel the instant the door opened.

That was why he started moving towards the door seconds after Kevin pressed the buzzer.

"Angel wait!" he shouted.

The vampire turned away; Kevin didn't and was then the only one standing out front when the door opened- and right in the path of an arrow.

Kevin Isaacson fell to the ground, an expression of surprise frozen on his face.

"No!" shouted Angel.

And then the enemy was on them.

**7:40:17 - 7:40:18 - 7:40:19**

Like everyone else Buffy had been sure that Robin would insist on driving when they started looking for Ethan's and Harmony' truck. Robin, however, handed her the keys without a word of protest.

"You're not afraid?" she'd asked half in jest.

Robin gave her a strange smile. "Let's just say that I feel adventurous."

Had the circumstances not been rushed Buffy might have asked about his 'tude. But they didn't have the time and it really wasn't that urgent. So she let Robin take the phone calls from Wolfram Hart that were tracking down the truck while they tried to catch up with it.

For a while everything went smoothly. The drivers weren't making any effort to hide the truck with a spell, and they managed to follow its trail West down Hollywood Boulevard all the way to Chinatown. Then there had been a brief blank stretch and then it showed up going down Pasadena Boulevard. But now they seemed to have lost it.

"They're sure that it was going this way?" she asked Robin.

Robin listened to the phone. "They said it was going Southeast fifteen minutes ago."

"Well, we just passed the Santa Monica Freeway. If they doubled back they could be taking the scenic route to…" Buffy trailed off.

"Buffy?" said Robin curiously.

"It was a black truck with doors in the back."

"Yeah." said Robin. The penny dropped. "Did you see it?"

In answer Buffy made an abrupt U-turn (just missing hitting the car behind them) and started heading back up the street.

"This isn't the way I want to die.," said Robin as they began moving back up the street.

Buffy ignored him and starting driving back. A quarter of a mile later, she saw it.

"What's the license plate number?" she asked Robin.

Robin listened for a few seconds. "G73-N08."

And there it was, parked in a side street with the doors shut. That would have been encouraging except that there was no one guarding it. Not a good sign.

Buffy pulled into a place about ten feet away.

"Do we need backup?" Robin asked.

Buffy thought, then shook her head. "Give me thirty seconds to check."

She slowly made her way to the car. Even before she got there, she was pretty sure of what she was going to find- or not find, as was the case.

No one was in the van. No vamps, no Ethan or Harmony, no Willow or Spike. "Goddamnit!" she swore.

Robin had started out of the car. "No one's here?" said Robin. "They just left the truck here to throw us off the scent?"

Buffy thought this was probably it- until she looked across the street.

And saw that they were right in front of a University of Southern California dormitory .

"Maybe they came here for a reason."

Robin was puzzled. "I don't follow."

"We're at the USC campus," said Buffy.

"And this is important because…"

"Connor's going to school here."

**7:47:43 - 7:47:44 - 7:47:45 -7:47:46**

As somebody had said, it was déjà vu all over again: Angel and Wesley were fighting with a bunch of vampires for their lives. This time, however, it was more difficult because they didn't have the advantage of surprise and silver ammunition and there were twice as many flunkies.

Despite that Wes was still managing to hold his own- until one of the vampires landed a lucky punch and knocked the shotgun from his hands. Before he could reach for his pistol, three vamps were on him. He fought hard but he was no match for them.

One of the vampires was about to sink his fangs into his neck when suddenly and without any warning, he screamed. A few seconds later he burst into flames. The other vamps had to leap back to avoid getting set on fire themselves- which gave Wes enough time to get to his pistol and dispatch those that hadn't been burned.

Wes wanted to know what force had done a deux ex machina and saved his life. Unfortunately, he realized that they didn't have the time to deal with it now.

He ran to Angel who had his hands around the neck of the last vamp. "Angel!"

Angel didn't even turn around. "Did you know that we were coming?" The vamp shook his head frantically. "Then why were you waiting here for us?"

"Can't talk…with you… choking me." the vamp managed.

"Nice try. But you don't have to breathe." said Angel.

"If you… crush my…larynx… I can't talk… dumbass."

Angel rolled his eyes but let up a little. "Answer my question."

"We were sent here by a guy named Thompson."

Wesley was standing over the vamp as well. "How does he know Ethan Rayne?"

"I don't know. But he must have some serious history with him."

"Why?"

The vampire looked at the two men as if they were fools. "He's the guy who fused him with the Poloxa. Made him a magus."

"Poloxa?" said Angel questioningly.

"Spell book of the middle ages." said Wesley "Supposedly if you became one with its spells you could become a powerful sorcerer." He thought some more. "The Poloxa was thought to have been lost for centuries."

"Not lost enough." Angel turned back to the vamp. "He just gave Rayne this power?"

"It's more than that. Thompson was the money."

A nasty picture was beginning to form in Wesley's head. "Let me guess." he said slowly. "He wore an Armani suit and had a Hilfiger briefcase."

Angel got it too. "This is the kind of thing that they'd invest in. Call the office. Get somebody to see if we can find a lead."

Wes dialed, thinking that an already bad situation had become worse. If Wolfram Hart was somehow involved in this- really involved, instead of just generally hindering their progress- there was a good chance that they would fail.

Unless…

He kept looking at the sky, wondering.

**7:54:19 - 7:54:20 - 7:54:21**

As much as Fred hated Justine for what she had done, she grudgingly had to admit that the girl had guts. It was an admirable characteristic for most people but very bothersome when you were trying to break them. It didn't help matters that the woman also had the strength and resistance of a Slayer- as well as other traits.

Fifteen minutes earlier, when Fred had entered the room with two of the most formidable looking Slayers she could dig up and a trolley loaded with drugs not meant for recreational use, she had hoped, perhaps foolishly, that that would intimidate Justine. Instead she had given the three of them a brief glance and said: "No, Madeline don't take me to the white room." After it became clear that Fred didn't understand this particular reference, she said, "You don't know what I'm talking about, do you? Where have you been the last seven years, in a cave?"

In less than thirty seconds Justine had managed to gain the advantage even though she was a prisoner at Fred's mercy. Things had gone downhill from there. She had decided to use chemistry rather than violence to try and get information out of her. Unfortunately, even though the chemicals were working, they weren't encouraging Justine to speak.

She watched as the latest injection coursed through Justine's veins. She was groaning but she seemed more amused then afraid.

"I gotta tell you, there's a guy in Van Nuys who sells this kind of junk for half what you probably paid for it." She managed a half-smile. "Want me to give you his cell?"

There was a rap at the door. "If that's my pizza, you're gonna have to pay for it." she said calmly. One of the Slayers gave Justine a disapproving look before opening the door to reveal Giles. "Well, if it isn't English Leather Prime. Come to glower me into submission?" Justine asked, sounding almost cheerful.

Having ignored wry comments from masters in the field, Giles calmly walked over to Fred. "Something's come up that needs your attention. Can we talk?"

Fred made a gesture. "Why not here?" When Giles gave her a look, she said, "It's not like she's going anywhere."

Giles weighed this and settled for walking to the opposite side of the room. "Wesley called from Bel Air. He and Angel are pretty sure that someone at Wolfram Hart made Ethan Rayne more than just the minor nuisance he was and has helped finance the search for the artifacts."

"They got a name?"

"Thompson. Unfortunately, aside from a vague description, that's all they have."

Fred took a deep breath. "All right. I'm going to do some back checking on our computers." She gestured towards one of the Slayers. "Regina, give her a few more minutes and then we'll try some of those truth serums."

"Gotcha."

Fred and Giles started walking out the door. "Could we be any further behind?" Fred muttered in frustration. "We don't learn about this threat until its almost upon us, they've beaten us to the first group of artifacts, they get the first raising done in front of us and now we learn they've got a man inside. What the hell's going to go wrong next?"

Five seconds after she said this the lights went out. "Well, that's different. I figured saying that would make something explode," commented Giles dryly.

Fred rolled her eyes, picked up her cell phone and auto-dialed Xander, who had joined Gunn and Faith on the security sweep. "What the hell is going on?" she said angrily into the phone.

"Hey, don't kill the messenger. I'm as pissed as you are."

"I know. What floor are you on?"

"I'm heading towards the basement along with the rest of my posse."

"Now is not the time to practice your ghetto-talk." Fred could hear Gunn was nearby.

"Sorry, I thought the mood could-" Xander stopped abruptly.

"Xander? Charles?"

"Did you hear that?" The humor had left Xander's voice in a hurry.

"Sounded like-" Gunn never finished his sentence as it was interrupted by the sound of glass shattering.

And screams of alarm.

"Xander? Somebody pick up? Is anyone there?" Fred shouted frantically. Giles in the meantime had run to the main part of the office and started shouting.

"We have intruders! We are under attack!"

**7:59:57 - 7:59:58 - 7:59:59 - 8:00:00**


	9. 8AM to 9AM

Chapter 9

The Following Takes Place Between 8 AM and 9 AM on the Day of the Autumnal Equinox

Even though he had only been working on the security department for two months Xander had had serious doubts of the security of the Wolfram Hart building. It wasn't just that so many people and demons, including many of the people now working here, had managed to get into the building without being caught, but that there were so many possible entrances and exits that it were impossible to guard under normal circumstances. Furthermore, out of deference to Angel, many of the vampire detectors had been removed. The building's vulnerabilities had made Xander certain that eventually something bad was going to happen.

He was not, however, gratified that this was being proved in spectacular fashion as vampires and demons began smashing at the windows around the stairs near the front of the building.

"Isn't this glass supposed to be shatterproof?" he yelled to Gunn.

"Supposedly nothing human can get through it," Gunn answered. "Which makes these dudes…" He didn't have to finish the sentence.

"They love semantics here, don't they?" Xander barely had enough time to get out this witticism before the glass broke.

_Thank the Lord I don't have to repair this_, he thought to himself as bad guys began streaming in.

The first vampire in made straight for Gunn, who was more than ready. In less than twenty seconds he managed to disarm it and knock it against the wall. Xander finished the job by knocking it down and staking it through the heart. Xander barely had time to turn around before he saw that two demons were climbing in through the window.

"Great, it's raining monsters," Gunn said as he saw another vampire coming through the window above them.

"Hallelujah," Xander said to himself before beginning to fight them.

Had the demons been of the caliber that they had fought at the diner and the Hollywood Bowl, they would have been neck deep in shit. As it was it took a lot of effort for Xander to knock one of the demons back out the window. He didn't even have enough time to notice if it was dead before he had to deal with the third.

Xander couldn't ID the breed of demons. All he knew was that it was red, short and fast. It easily managed to dodge the sword he was swinging. There was no help to be found from Gunn. He was busy with a vampire. So when the demon managed to knock the sword from Xander's hands and bore down on him with its sharp claws, he thought he was dead. And he kept thinking that ten seconds after the demon fell back with an arrow in its neck.

"You just gonna lie there?" said the figure with the crossbow.

Xander turned and when he saw who had saved him, he yelled. "Oh crap. Not you!"

Andrew stood a few feet away. "Come on! We need to stop the rest of them."

As they ran, Xander couldn't help but ask, "You're not gonna make me your bitch now, are you?"

**8:05:09 - 8:05:10 - 8:05:11**

When the power had gone out Fred had been pulled in six different directions: what had to be done and how soon. First, she told the two Slayers watching Justine to stay put no matter how crazy it got. Then she ran to Giles and made sure that he was getting as many people as he could to help secure the building.

She then got Kennedy, Cho-san and a third Slayer, whose name escaped her, to take Dawn and guard her with their lives- she was pretty sure that this attack was an attempt to grab the girl who was the Key. Finally, she headed for the sub-basement to try and get the power back on.

Despite feeling scattered about the whole mess she was still thinking rationally. Since the subbasement was probably the point of entry, it was likely going to be teeming with monsters. So she had gotten the best back up she could find. She had called for Faith.

"I guess this is what they call divide and conquer," the dark-haired Slayer said as they ran down one of the staircases. "Boy did I just use the wrong phrase."

"Depends on who you're referring to," said Fred. "Us or them."

"Let's hope it works for us and doesn't for them."

Fred nodded. They went down another floor before something occurred to Faith. "Did you call B or Angel?" Fred looked at her. "Hey I know I'm good but, considering the stakes, we need our A-team."

Fred had thought of that. With great longing. "As much as we need them, stopping this raising has to be our number one priority."

"Even if we all end up dead?"

Fred looked at Faith.

"Wish I hadn't said that," the slayer responded

"Especially if we all wind up dead." Now Faith sent her a look. "Wish I hadn't said _that."_

By then they were in the basement stairwell. And they were not alone. A vampire leapt into their path. Faith threw a couple of punches and knocked it down the staircase.

Where at least half a dozen vampires and demons were waiting.

"We have to go into that?" Faith sounded curious. Not concerned or alarmed, just curious.

" 'Fraid so."

Faith took out a stake. "Then what are we waiting for? Ready?"

Fred set her modified taser rifle to full blast. "Let's boogie."

And in they went.

**8:09:24- 8:09:25- 8:09:26- 8:09:27**

Roderick- the vampire whom Angel and Wesley had captured- was not proving to be the font of information they had hoped to find. He insisted that he had been hired by Harmony to be part of a mission that involved the destruction of Angel-Slayer Inc. and that they were involved in a program of some magnitude. That was all they had managed to get from him despite their enormous patience. At least by their standards.

"We don't have time to dickering around," Angel said, lifting Roderick by the collar. "So for the last time, where are Harmony and Ethan Rayne hiding?"

"I'm telling you I don't know!" screamed Roderick. Ten seconds passed before he yelled again, this time from the agony of having his head slammed against the car.

"Where are they?" Angel repeated.

"I'm telling the truth! Harmony told me that we were going to wreck you and your band of do-gooders! That's what she called you!" he frantically added as Angel prepared to slam him again.

"How did she meet up with Ethan Rayne?" Wesley asked in a detached tone.

"Thompson- Thompson must have introduced them!"

"And how did she know Thompson?"

Roderick looked at Angel as if he was insane. "Thompson worked for Wolfram Hart!" he said.

"Tell us something we couldn't have figured out by ourselves," said Angel. "And it had better be relevant or the pummeling resumes."

"Wolfram Hart…has an executive liaison with the demon community of L.A." said Roderick. "They hire us to do dirty work that absolutely can't be connected to the firm. After…after everybody at the office was killed by that…that rockhead. Thompson was the new guy."

"So Harmony met this man Thompson through a blood ritual." Wesley stated.

Roderick shook his head. "I don't know for sure. All I know is that a couple of weeks ago she said she was going to make a new world for vampires, destroy you guys at Angel-Slayer and get her old boyfriend back all in one swoop. She said that this guy Thompson was going to help her put the pieces together."

"And this apartment?" Angel pressed.

"It's where everybody met. They held meetings here and I guess they put the plan together here. This is the only place that Harmony, Rayne and Thompson would meet."

"Then what were you doing here?" Wesley asked.

For a moment, it seemed Roderick wasn't going to answer. Angel was about to hit him again when he spoke. "When they came up with this plan, they knew you and your gang would come running. They knew you'd look for them so they gave you some places to search."

A sickening feeling entered Wesley's stomach. "The vampires and demons we ran into, the ones we found so easily- they were there to keep us busy while the rest of them—"

"Goddammit!" Angel slammed his fist in the wall just to the left of Roderick. "Where are they?"

"I don't know. Only a select few were told the main details." Roderick was starting to sound smug despite his position.

"If you don't tell me—" Angel started.

"-I'm dead?" finished Roderick. "News flash: I'm dead no matter how this plays out. You dust me or they dust me. Really doesn't matter." Now he did grin. "Want to hit me some more?"

Angel lifted his fist up, then let it fall to his side. Roderick was right. They were at a stalemate.

Suddenly Wesley's phone rang.

**8:15:19- 8:15:20- 8:15:21**

Buffy had been starting to worry. She had tried twice to contact Angel-Slayer and nobody- not Xander, not Giles, or Dawn- was picking up the phone. Feeling a little desperate, she called the last person she wanted to in a situation like this.

Her ex.

"Yes?"

"Wesley, are you and Angel all right?" she asked.

"In a manner of speaking. We managed to find this hideout, but Ethan and Harmony were nowhere to be found." Wesley sounded on edge. Buffy figured they hadn't been met by the welcoming committee. "We did, however, find that Wolfram Hart has their fingers in whatever the two of them have planned."

"Why those lousy- No I can't even pretend to be surprised that those assholes are involved," Buffy said.

"Any luck on your end?" asked Wesley.

"Yes and no. We found the truck but Harmony and Ethan weren't in it."

"Damn. Any clues where they might be?"

"Robin's checking it out."

"Where are you?"

Buffy took a deep breath. She wasn't wild about telling Wesley the next part. "Just outside the USC dorms."

She let it sink in.

"That's- Connor's going to school there."

"Thank you, Wes. Angel told me the details," Buffy sighed.

"Do you think- They promised that Connor wouldn't be in any danger."

"Well I guess Harmony and Ethan didn't get the memo. For all I know, Connor may have nothing to do with this prophecy. They might just be getting him for mischief."

"That's…not impossible."

Now to deal with the other problem. "Wes, when was the last time you checked in with the guys at home base?"

There was a pause. "About twenty five minutes ago. Is there—"

"I haven't been able to get anyone on the other end for nearly half an hour." Buffy looked at the truck. "I'm beginning to get worried."

"Damn it." There was another pause. "I know that you're concerned but-"

"Yeah, yeah end of days. Can't leave our posts. Yadda yadda yadda," Buffy said. "I know about duty and leadership, but if our friends are-" She stopped. "We really are doomed if they're gone."

There was another pause. Finally Wes sighed. "Use your own judgment. But Buffy- "

"I know. Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Buffy hung up.

While she waited for Robin, she prayed- she didn't know who to- the others were all right.

**8:21:27 - 8:21:28 - 8:21:29 -8:21:30**

It shouldn't have taken so long to cut through the flock of evil doers in the sub-basement- after all, Faith was a Slayer and the rifle Fred was using had been very effective in killing vampires. However when they managed to get through the first wave and into the sub-basement proper, Fred realized she had not taken into account the layout of the floor.

Two things were working against them. First, there was the relative narrowness of the level: The vampires were fighting in very close quarters which would have made it easy if they had been the only ones in the room. However, since Faith was fighting them, it was very difficult to take a shot without risking serious injury to the Slayer. Second, the fuses and power boxes were located near the middle of the room. A stray spark from a blast and the whole basement might go up like a box of matches.

Fred had been forced to use her gun as a club, telling herself she could repair any damage to the mechanisms, and began to form an attack pattern with Faith: she would stun the monster with a blow to the head or other extremities, then Faith would move in and stake the monster through the heart.

This worked on the three vampires and one of the smaller demons. Unfortunately, the last two were proving far more formidable because both had armored skin—one had a plate-like head, the other had protective covering around its chest. The established pattern obviously wouldn't work. Faith was occupied with Mr. Steelhead, leaving Fred to deal with the other.And considering that it had her nearly boxed in a corner, she was in trouble and she knew it.

"You know, they told me that the people who worked here were the best and the brightest," it said, mockingly, as it just missed her head with a right cross. "I don't think you're much of either."

Fred had one last play. There was almost no way she could miss at her range. A medium powered blast from the gun would probably bake him like a potato—assuming of course that the gun could still fire and that the wiring in the walls didn't burst into flames. Considering that she was certainly dead otherwise she decided to scrap the scientific method and experiment in an uncontrolled setting.

"Well I may not be the best," she said as she whirled the taser around and set it to medium power, "but you're going to be…" She said a silent prayer and turned the rifle on. "…the brightest."

By the time she said the last 't' in 'brightest' the taser had fired. The shot hit him square in the chest. Within fifteen seconds the beast was motionless and the room smelled of fried hair.

As soon as she was sure the creature was dead, she ran to the other side of the room. Faith had fought the guy with the cast-iron head into the doorway but, from the look on her face, she seemed to be getting tired.

Fred began to charge the taser but before she could fire two things happened almost simultaneously. The monster began leaning to its right, away from the door. A split second later, Faith drove the stake she was carrying into the soft underbelly on his left side. The monster held up his left arm as if he was going to point at her and fell dead.

"Nice slaying, Faith," Fred said as she closed the distance between them.

"Thanks," said Faith. "But I don't deserve the cred." She was looking outside the room.

Where Xander was standing with a crossbow in hand. Only then did Fred see the arrow in the creature's neck.

"That's twice today my life has been saved by someone with no super powers," said Faith. "The universe is trying to tell me something."

"Well I'm telling you that there's a shitload of demons still up there and we could use help," Xander said calmly.

Faith looked at Fred. "Can you get the juice back on?" she asked.

"Yes and this I can do by myself. Go."

Faith went out the door. Before she left, she looked at her. "You're a good fighter, Fred."

"Thanks." she said.

"But your wordplay sucks." The Slayer left leaving Fred to consider this.

**8:28:49 - 8:28:50 - 8:28:51**

Despite having been captured by the enemy, being guarded by two very strong women, and that she was tied and handcuffed to a chair, Justine still thought that her keepers were the ones in trouble and not the other way around.

She had known the power failure was coming, she knew what her colleagues had planned and she realized that she could be the difference in what happened here today.

The second Burkle and Giles left the room, Justine seized the opportunity. Utilizing strategies that she had been working on ever since that other English asshole had kept her prisoner, she began working free of the ropes. She had been a little nervous that two Slayers were watching her but it had become quickly obvious that these girls hadn't yet honed their abilities to keep a close watch. (In fairness they were also distracted by the confusion and violence not a hundred yards away)

Working herself free while appearing to be captive took she longer than she had thought it would. But as the black slayer walked closer - Justine didn't know her name and frankly didn't care - and the white one left to check on the violence outside, Justine knew that the time had come.

"Hey hon," she said in what she hoped was a submissive voice, "I'm awful thirsty."

"Suck your own sweat, bitch."

Justine burned but kept it in check—she wouldn't have to for long. "You gimme a drink I'll tell you what's coming."

Apparently this Slayer was as stupid as she looked because she turned to the table to get her a glass. The second she turned, Justine moved.

In two quick upward movements she was free of the ropes. Her hands were still cuffed behind her but she was out. The black Slayer reacted fast, but not fast enough. In one quick move Justine kicked her hard in the jaw. She went down fast.

Now that she was up she pulled her wrists apart. A normal girl would have broken one if not both wrists, but Justine's strength and adrenaline helped her do it without feeling a thing.

She looked over the body for a weapon and found a small dagger very quickly.

"Regina, we got—" The other guard came into the doorway and never finished her sentence. This one's reactions were faster than the others but weren't quick enough. Justine moved as quick as a cat and in a swift motion stabbed the white Slayer in the chest. Justine pushed her body towards Regina's (was that her name? didn't matter) without a second thought.

"Tell Wesley I said hello," she said to the barely conscious Regina. And then she was off into the chaos.

**8:34:15- 8:34:16- 8:34:17- 8:34:18**

Spike had been back in the mortal coil for less than three hours and he still had no idea why. He didn't know why they had kidnapped him and Willow, he had no idea how Harmony could have masterminded this (or anything), and he had no idea where the bloody cavalry was. But what really cheesed him off was that even though they had brought him back from who knew where, the guards and the leaders of this plot were treating him and Willow as though they were luggage. Harmony and Ethan (the guy in the suit had disappeared a while back) hadn't said two words to them since they had gotten here and the guards were the typical strong, stupid type. Spike wanted answers and he wanted them now. And now that Ethan had left for unexplained reasons he decided to try what he hoped would be the path of least resistance.

"Harm?" No answer. "Harm?" Time to swallow his pride. "Snuggle-bunny?"

Even though Harmony was fifty feet away, that got her attention. In a matter of seconds she was walking towards him.

"You remembered," she said, a smile crossing her face. Spike thought he'd succeeded- until she stopped a few feet away and kicked Spike in the stomach. "Don't you ever call me that again."

This wasn't going to work. He tried another tack. "Harm, we once cared about each other."

"Bull-fucking-shit. First, I was your replacement for Drusilla, then I was your Buffy substitute. You never cared for me one day in our entire relationship." She was practically in his face. "Do you know how many months I spent in therapy because of what you did to me?'

This was almost as startling his being held hostage by her. "You went to a shrink?" he asked incredulously.

For a moment the old Harm was looking at him. "Well I turned him first. Despite what you may think I'm not a complete idiot."

A thousand sarcastic rejoinders came to mind, but he managed to push them back down. "If you hated me that much why did you go to all this trouble to bring me back?"

Harmony gave a dry laugh. "Well, aren't we feeling important today, Mister I'm-the-center-of-the-Universe? We didn't need to bring you back. We needed the jewel you were wearing in order to make sure the sunlight didn't burn all the vampires." She fixed him with a look of disdain. "You were just…leftovers."

Spike wasn't sure what to say to that. Willow, however, had found her tongue. "But the prophecy says…"

"The prophecy says a lot of things. But even if it called for a vampire with a soul- and that depends how you translate it- news flash! We already have one."

This was a little much for Spike. "Angel? That bloody sod stops apocalypses, he never starts them."

"Maybe he won't have a choice this time," Harmony said huffily.

That didn't make much sense. "What do you have planned?" Spike asked.

"Oh no you don't. Not again. I've seen 'Tomorrow Never Dies' and 'The World Is Not Enough'! You're not going to sucker me," said Harmony. "You're just going to have to wait another—" she looked at her watch- "two hours and fifty six minutes.

"And what happens then?' Spike didn't think he would get an answer but he decided to try.

Harmony fixed him with a look. " 'Then the heavens will scream and the earth shall quake. And the magnificent one shall again awake.' That's what's going to happen." She smiled. "You know I never much cared for poetry but this…it speaks to me. Does it speak to you, William my sweet?"

**8:41:09- 8:41:10 - 8:41:11**

Buffy tapped her feet very impatiently as the phone rang for the fourth time. It was her fifth call to Angel-Slayer. Left to her own devices she would have been tearing ass to get back to the building, but the Conner situation was such that she needed to get feedback and take-

"Angel-Slayer, Leonard Kopell," said the voice on the other end of the line.

"What the hell is going on over there?" she said without pretense. "Why has no one picked up?"

"Funny you should ask." Leonard seemed reluctant to talk.

"Leonard, this is rapidly becoming the worst day of my life. Please, don't dick around with me."

The seer exhaled. "About forty minutes ago some demons from whomever the hell is trying to bring about the apocalypse cut the power to the building and tried to break in."

Buffy had been afraid of that. "Is everyone okay?"

"A bunch of the Slayers got banged up and Gunn and Xander are going to have some nasty bruises, but basically everybody's all right.'

Buffy brushed her hand across her face and prepared to ask the question that she didn't want to. "What about Dawn?"

"She's in a room with three Slayers guarding her. She's fine."

Buffy exhaled. "Sorry, I—"

"It's okay. I understand," Leonard said. "How are things on your end? Any leads on Willow and Spike?"

"No. Angel and Wes might have had better luck tracking them down. They should be heading back to you now. They actually have a prisoner so maybe they'll get some info from him." Buffy's tone revealed what she thought the chance was of that happening. "Do you have any leads on this guy from Wolfram Hart who's working with Ethan and Harmony?"

"The powers back on in most of the building but its going to be a while before we have all of the computers back where they were before."

"Damn it." Suddenly Buffy saw Robin coming back from the student union where he had been trying to get information on Conner. "Look, we may have an idea where Ethan, Harmony and the Bean might be looking for."

"Who?"

"Conner."

There was a pause at the end of the line. "He's not mentioned in the prophecy were dealing with-"

"I know, I don't want to go into this." Buffy took a deep breath. "I've just killed an hour looking for what may be our only lead on the black hats. They came to Conner's college and I don't think it was for a pep rally. Get us back up as fast as you can." She hung up the phone and looked at Robin. "What do you know?"

"Well I finally got some use out of being a principal again," Robin said. "According to the front desk, Connor's first class is at 9:15 in Bradford Hall. It's about three blocks away."

"Then let's move." As they walked Buffy noticed that even though it was a fairly mild day, Robin was perspiring pretty hard. She shrugged it off to his running around the campus and forgot it.

For a while.

**8:47:58 - 8:47:59- 8:48:00 - 8:48:01**

Wesley had long since steeled himself from showing any kind of reaction when anything that surprised him happened. So when he got out into the Wolfram Hart building and surveyed the damage done, his only reaction was an almost inaudible, "Oh my."

Angel's response to these kinds of situations was usually similar but apparently today was starting to strain his patience, because when he saw the building his reaction was: "What the fuck happened here?"

Half of the windows in the stairwells had been shattered. The lights in half the rooms were flickering on and off. The walls and floors were covered with splatter that could only be demons blood. And every so often, a member of the Watchers or a Slayer passed by, bruised and battered. It was as if they were in some bizarre demonic version of the Battle of Waterloo.

Angel was busy guarding Roderick so Wesley looked for a familiar face among the new Watchers and Slayers and finally found one. "Giles? What the hell happened?" he asked.

Giles closed the distance quickly. "What happened? We were the victim of a home invasion, that's what bloody happened."

Wesley looked at the scene. "And they sent the SAS to come in here?"

"There were dozens of them." Giles said simply. "Ethan and Harmony must have a small army working for them."

A lot of questions occurred to Wes but he quickly realized he didn't have time for them. He settled for the most immediate concern. "How many of us are down?'

Giles pulled himself together. "Xander and Andrew are checking on that. Faith and Gunn are sweeping the building to see if there are any stragglers. Fred's getting the power back on, Leonard and Lorne are reassembling the troops. As far as we know there were seven or eight people wounded but no fatalities."

Wesley looked around. "So I guess things look a lot worse than they actually are."

Giles clearly didn't agree but before he could say anything, his cell phone rang. "Yes?" He listened for a few seconds. "What!" he exploded. "How the hell did she…" He put his hand to his head. "Is she still in the building? " The anger drained a little. "All right." He hung up abruptly.

"What now?" said Wesley.

"We had two Slayers guarding Justine. One's dead, the other's barely conscious. We have no idea how long she's been gone, she could be on her way to San Diego for all we know." He slammed his hand against the door. "Damn it! Now we're back to bloody square one!"

"Not quite." Wesley was surprised to find that he was so calm. "We have a prisoner from where Angel and I were attacked."

"You were attacked?" Giles asked.

"I'll give you the blow by blow later. " Wes turned to Angel. "Take Roderick upstairs and get him set up. Somehow I think pumping a vampire will be easier than pumping a Slayer."

"What about Justine?"

And still Wes was calm: "She's a bad penny. And, today of all days we know how they keep turning up."

**8:53:48- 8:53:49 -8:53:50**

Kennedy had been pissed off for a while. Part of it was that she had been left at Angel-Slayer while almost everyone else on the board had gone out into the city. But most of it had been her frustration and worry that Willow had been taken prisoner and that no one was letting her do anything to find her girlfriend. Fred had tried to explain that they couldn't send all of their muscle out looking for her. Though she didn't agree with that, Kennedy decided to give them the benefit of the doubt seeing as they had been doing this longer than her.

But then when she could have been doing something useful when the bad guys had hit them she was sidelined again, this time to help protect Dawn. Kennedy had known Dawn longer than she had known Fred and she knew that the girl was more than capable of taking care of herself. She didn't need a baby sitter, let alone three.

So when the sounds of fighting had come closer about half an hour ago, she had told Cho-San and Bethany to help the others in that fight. She was going to go herself but Dawn had asked her to stay- please. It was the please that did it. Dawn was almost never that polite.

So she had stayed and they had talked. When they stopped Kennedy realized that she had underestimated the girl again .And that she had real guts. Then she had gotten the call that Justine had managed to escape- and Dawn had said: "This may be our only chance."

So they had talked some more…and finally Kennedy agreed.

And now she was standing outside the room Dawn was in, half hoping that what was going to happen wouldn't.

And then it started.

Even though Fred had said that the vampires and demons had been thoroughly routed, she knew that there were some stragglers. And the sight of one lone girl standing alone was apparently enough of an attraction for the four vampires and demons that had suddenly appeared.

Suddenly she was a Slayer again as the bloodlust flowed through her. She pummeled the first vampire and in a matter of seconds she had staked him. A vampire and a silver-backed demon then tried to tag team her. She had to some quick dodging and some high kicks before she managed to knock them back. Her focus was on the one who had gotten away. So she broke for the door.

And saw a woman who could only be the rogue slayer, Justine, holding a knife to Dawn's throat with a vampire on her left.

"Get away from here!" Kennedy shouted.

Justine smiled. "Make me"

"That's not gonna work darling. If I've got the straight dope, you need her alive to complete the ritual. "

For a moment, a look of mild distress appeared in Justine's face. Then it was gone. "That's right. She gets to live. At least for a while. You on the other hand-"

Had she reacted a moment later she would have been dead. As it was the demon behind her took a big gouge out of her left arm.

They struggled and fought. In less than thirty seconds it was dead. But that was long enough for Justine and the last vampire to disappear with Dawn.

She began the chase, knowing that it would likely be futile. Knowing that Buffy and the others might flay her alive before she could explain why this had happened.

And hoping that Dawn was right about what was going to happen.

**8:59:57- 8:59:58 - 8:59:59- 9:00:00**


	10. 9AM to 10AM

* * *

Chapter 10 

The Following takes place between 9 am and 10 am on the day of the Autumnal equinox.

As Connor Stevenson jogged the last bit of his route on his way to Political Science, he again marveled and the beauty of the day. The sky was so blue and the temperature was so crisp, it made him feel like singing even though he couldn't carry a tune to save his life.

_Man, Tracy would laugh at this whole Sound of Music thing I've got going on_, Connor thought to himself as he thought of his kid sister.

But he couldn't help himself. He had always been a cheerful young man, but over the last few months in particular he had been feeling so joyous. And not just over his getting 1460 on his SATs or getting a scholarship to the University of Southern Califronia. It was the small, trivial things that made him feel glad. The taste of an ice cream cone, the smell of flowersfor some reason it didn't take a great deal to make him feel glad to be alive.

Oh, life wasn't perfect. There were the dreams for one thing. He had bad dreams every other day or so. Most of the time they faded by the time he had breakfastbut sometimes they stayed with him. And they were strange dreams that seemed to come out of a Spielberg film. Nightmares of fire falling from the sky and the sun turning black. Of being locked in a box and sinking beneath an ocean. Of strange people whose faces morphed when you came near them. But none of this was as troubling as the fact as they didn't seem like dreams. They seemed familiarlike memories. But that was Looney Tunes, right?

He tried to shrug it off. He didn't want the buzz he was feeling to go away. He wanted to feel like the hills were alive with the

He heard something behind him.

Another thing he didn't understand. His senses, particularly his sight and hearing, had always been very good but now he was beginning to feel like Superman. He could hear a door creak a hundred yards away and, right now, he heard people walking behind him.

He turned around and saw that he had been right. A black man and a white woman were about twenty feet away from him. And they reacted strangelyas if they weren't sure what to do now that they had found him.

"Can I help you?' he said trying to sound upbeat.

The woman - she couldn't be much older - than he was looked at him for a moment. "You're Connor Stevenson?"

"That's me." They studied each other. "Do I know you?"

"No," said the girl. "I can say with certainty that we've never met."

"Then how do you know my name?" he asked cautiously.

The girl seemed vexed on how to answer that question. Finally, she said, "There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just be blunt."

"O-kay." He was beginning to question this woman's behavior.

"Connor…we think that your life may be in danger," the girl said carefully.

This wasn't what he expected. "From who?'

"Some very dangerous people."

"And you know this how?"

She took a deep breath. "Because they're probably watching us right now."

**9:05:22 - 9:05:23 -9:05:24**

Despite being better versed in science fiction than science fact, Andrew didn't think that it was possible under any system for Justine to get Dawn out of the building without being stopped. The numbers just didn't support it. There was only Justine (and she was injured) and maybe three or four evil henchmen still alive in a building that none of them had been in before. Weighed against this was the fact that there were a minimum of fifty or sixty well armed men and women looking for her. They should have been able to track her down easily.

But the building's security system still wasn't working at a hundred percent, and none of them were entirely sure that they could count on some of Wolfram & Hart employees to help them. As Xander had told Andrew as they had swept the fifth floor, "It's not like they jimmied a window open. Somebody had to tell them where to come in."

But that was a problem for later. Right now Andrew was trying to find a needle in a very big haystackif the needle was even still there. And as he looked on the video screens on the second floor security office he was beginning to think that this was less and less likely.

Suddenly his cell phone rang. "Andrew." he said, hoping it wasn't Buffy. He didn't want to be the one who had to tell her that they had lost her sister.

It wasn't. "Andrew we need you to meet us in the science lab." Giles was speaking with a calm Andrew couldn't understandbut he was English after all.

"I'm a little busy looking for Dawn," he said pointedly.

"That's why we need to speak to you. Now." There was a tone in his voice that Andrew had learned it was better not to disagree with.

"I'll be right there." He hung up and started moving. But even at top speed it took him more than two minutes to get there. By the time he arrived, he felt like a sixth-grader rushing to make it to homeroom.

When he got there it was clear something wasn't quite right.

Giles and Xander were standing on one side of the room Gunn, Fred and Angel were on the other. Fred was checking over a panel of some kind. But everyone seemed to be focused on the center of the room where Kennedy was standing looking abashed but firm.

"Where's everyone else?" asked Andrew. He did not like the mood in the room. It seemed extra tense.

"Faith's working with Cho-san on the vamp Angel and I brought in," said Wes. "Leonard and Lorne are making sure the building's secure." He looked at Kennedy. "The other Slayers are trying to find Justine."

"Enough with the roll call I would like to know why we're not trying to stop Justine from escaping with Dawn." said Xander.

"They've probably gotten out of the building by now." Giles was speaking calmly but it was pretty easy to tell he was pissed.

"Why the hell didn't we stop her?" said Andrew angrily.

Fred looked towards the center of the room. "Kennedy?"

The usually confident slayer seemed nervous. Finally she spoke.

"Because she asked me not to."

**9:11:06 - 9:11:07 - 9:11:08 -9:11:09**

Buffy knew that what she was asking of Connor was a very hard sell. She had been at least a little encouraged by the fact that he had agreed to move out of the open air to the hallway of a dorm.

However, then Connor had asked her and Robin to explain what they meant about his life being in danger. Buffy then realized that she was going to have to tell Connor his life story fast and convincingly and, because she hadn't been around for any of it, she was going to have to do it using second and third hand information.

It wasn't going very well.

"Let me just see if I'm following you so far," said Connor in a voice that sounded like he was humoring her. "Vampires are real."

"That's right," said Buffy.

"The whole blood-sucking, cross fearing, sunlight-hating bit, it's all true."

"Yeah." Buffy tried to sound hopeful.

"I am the child of two vampireswhich is kind of impressive cause, if I remember my horror movies correctly, vampires can't have children." Connor was beginning to sound like he was questioning her sanity. "I am a super strong hero who is the focus of a lot of evil groups attention."

"Yeah."

"And I was born when exactly?'

This wasn't going to help her much. "About a year ago."

Connor took this is. "O-kay."

Robin spoke up: "You were raised in a hell dimension where time flows differently."

"Yeah, because alternate dimensions can be tricky that way." Connor was definitely looking at them as if he was fitting them for straitjackets. "I then escaped from that dimension how exactly?"

Buffy looked at Robin. "I'm not entirely sure how."

"Well, I am the child of two vampires. I'm sure I escaped four hell dimensions before breakfast." Connor wasn't quite laughing but he seemed on the verge.

"Look, I realize this is a lot to take in" said Robin.

"How exactly is it that you know all this?" said Connor.

This wasn't going to bolster their argument. "I used to go out with this vampire," Buffy said weakly.

"But you're not a vampire. You're a fearless vampire hunter."

"Uhh, 'slayer' actually." By now Buffy was trying to look at anything but Connor.

"Vampire slayer, my mistake. And vampire slayers are allowed to date vampires. It's not a violation of some code or anything?"

"It's frowned upon."

"I see. Yours is a forbidden love I take it. "

Buffy really didn't like being mocked. "Could we get back to the point?"

"Yes, because you're on much safer ground saying I'm a Wonder Twin."

"Look, I know how crazy this sounds" said Buffy.

"No, no, I don't think that crazy is anywhere near accurate enough to describe how truly bonkers this whole spiel is," Connor looked at Buffy dead in the eye. "But let's just say that everything you've told me is true. How come I don't remember any of this?"

She was beaten but she knew that she had to finish this off. "Angel made a deal so that your memory would be erased so that you could live a normal life."

Connor took this in. Seemed to weigh it for a few seconds

"Then why is my life in danger?'"

Buffy wished she had a good answer to that question. "We're not sure, but we think it might have something to do with the end of the world."

Connor considered all this. Finally he got up from the chair he'd been sitting in.: "Uh-huh. I see. Well, this has been very entertaining but I'm going to be late for class."

"Connor, I know this is hard to believe" Robin started.

"Hard to believe? If you tried selling this story to TV they wouldn't buy it because it's too implausible!" He thought for a moment. "Well, maybe the WB would. They put anything on."

He walked towards the door.

"Connor, please…"

"No, this has been very interesting but I need to get back to the real world. A place I recommend you two get to know." He exited.

Robin looked at Buffy. "Any more bright ideas?'

Buffy sighed. "Call Angel-Slayer and find out what the hell is going on there." She headed to the door.

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to make sure no delusions attack Connor."

**9:17:11 - 9:17:12 - 9:17:13**

As he looked at the computer-drawn map of Los Angeles they were using to track Dawn, Xander couldn't help but marvel, for what must have been the hundredth time, at the power of the building where he had come to work. Even though the previous owners had been evil, they sure were up-to-the-second technology-wise. He thought about saying it out loud so that maybe the mood might be lightened. On the other hand, as he looked at the faces of the others, it probably wouldn't and they didn't look like they were in a laughing mood.

"Let me just see if I've got this straight—" For some reason Andrew was the most upset about this plan. "when Dawn heard that she might be part of the prophecy, she came to you, Fred, and discussed the possibility that the forces of darkness might grab her."

He stared at Fred hard enough to burn holes in her. Fred didn't back down. "That's right."

"So you put one of the tracking devices that you've been working on in the science department on Dawn just in case." Xander said. It was clear he was having a hard time with this as well.

Fred looked right at him. "Yes."

"Then when Leonard told you that the bad guys were going to attack us, Dawn came to you and said that this might be our best chance at finding Ethan, Harmony and whoever's working with them." By now Andrew was practically nose to nose with Fred.

"That's right."

"And youthe smartest person herethought that that was a good idea."

Fred began walking towards Andrew. "Willow was kidnapped, they'd performed the dysnotipia, we were running out of options."

"So you decided that it would be smart to give the bad guys exactly what they needed." Andrew had stopped moving but now he seemed to be shaking with anger. "How much of your mind did you lose when you were stuck in Pylea?"

Fred barely twitched but it was clear the remark had hurt.

"Andrew, there's no need" started Wesley

"No need? Do you know how many Bond movies and Star Trek episodes I've seen where they tried that plan? You know how many times it worked?"

"This isn't TV Andrew. This is real life," Giles said calmly.

"And that means it's more likely to work?" By now Andrew was shouting. "They might kill her! Hell, they probably will!"

"Possibly," said Wesley. "But not likely. Dawn's very important to this ritual."

Xander couldn't let this pass. "In case you've forgotten, the last time she was important to a ritual she nearly got killed!"

"I know that!" said Fred. "But we're running out of time. In less than three hours, they perform the eutrasia. And I don't think they're going to bring back Spike with this one."

"Fred's right," said Wesley. "We need to end this before the next raising. Maybe we'll get some information from our undead prisoner but I'm not holding my breath. This is probably going to be our only chance. We have to do this."

Andrew looked at the resolve on the faces of the two Englishmen and Fred. Finally he spoke: "You want to do this fine. But you better pray this comes out all right. If something happens to Dawn, Buffy will probably kill you herself." He started walking towards the door. As he opened it, he turned to them for a final remark: "And if she doesn't, I will."

The slam of the door served as an exclamation point to Andrew's vow.

**9:25:29 - 9:25:30 - 9:25:31 - 9:25:32**

Once again Dawn was being held prisoner by a borderline killer. At least that was what she thought that Justine was thinking and she was going to do her damnedest to make sure that sheand the vampires who were on either side of herkept thinking that way.

She knew that she had to play this very carefullyDawn didn't think they'd kill her but she knew there was a real possibility that they'd beat the crap out of herso she had to maintained a façade of calm despair. She had kept it up as they left the building, as they had run down the street, as the Volvo that she was riding in now had pulled up in front of them.

"What the hell are you doing here, Thompson?" Justine did not seem at all happy to see the man in the suit.

"I wanted to make sure that those brave souls who charged our building didn't lose their unlives in vain."

"You're awfully calm considering what a number our boys managed to do on your building," Justine said as she pushed Dawn around the other side of that same Volvo.

"You're forgetting who made sure your side had the blueprints to hit our building," said Thompson as he unlocked the back door, allowing the vamps inside to secure Dawn.

There was a mood of extreme hostility in the front seat.. Dawn decided to try and see if she could use it to get any information that could help."Let's see if I can tell if I'm keeping up with the big boys," she said. "Mr. Thompson here worked with Wolfram & Hart." Nothing from either of them. "And even though Murder Inc. promised they'd leave LA to us, he helped excavate my hometown in order to obtain artifacts, brought together idiots like Harmony and Ethan, hiding prophecies that would help us stop them and now helping vampires break into his employers old headquarters."

"What's your point, kid?" muttered Justine.

"Just wanted to know how this falls under the category of not interfering with us," Dawn said.

"Wolfram & Hart would never renege on any of our agreements," Thompson said calmly. "I believe one of my colleagues, however, made it clear that we would continue to represent clients who might have interest contrary to those of you and your associates."

"What are you stupid, Thompson? The bitch is trying to pump you," Justine said, furious.

"I haven't told her anything that she doesn't already know." Thompson said, talking to Justine as if she was the child. "Besides, it's not like she's going to get a chance to tell anyone."

Thompson said the last sentence so matter-of-factly that it didn't immediately register with Dawn. Then the implications hit her. "Wait a minute. I thought I was important to this eutrasia thing."

"You are, Miss Summers. You are." If she wasn't being held prisoner she would have kicked the seat of this prick. "And don't worry. We have no intention of killing you. Indeed, you might even walk away from today without a scratch on you."

"Then what…"

"I merely meant, young lady, that by the time you get a chance to talk to someone there will be no one on your side left to hear it."

"What do you mean? What do you have planned?"

But Thompson was finished and said no more. He'd said enough. Dawn was worried about how deep she was.

She looked down at the wrist that had the bracelet with the tracking device in it. _Keep working_, she thought to herself._ I don't know what'll happen if you conk out._

**9:32:44 - 9:32:45 - 9:32:46**

Of all the strange and horrible things she'd seen over the past few hours, what bothered Willow most was that Harmony had learned self-control. Alive or dead, it had been nearly impossible to get Harmony to shut up about anythingwhether about the nerdiness of the student body or how she was going to kill Buffy. Today, however, aside from brief chatter, Harmony had told them almost nothing. Not what they were ultimately planning to raise. Not what role she and Spike were going to play in the process. Not what role Wolfram & Hart was playing in it.

Of course it helped a great deal that Ethan Rayne had reappeared as mysteriously as he had disappeared. He subtly made it very clear to Harmony that she would do well to shut up. The quiet and nervous anticipation had added a layer of tensionuntil Harmony's cell phone rang.

"It's about time you" she snapped out before listening. "What are you doing calling us?" Harmony began walking towards the door. "How the hell did she…" Another pause. "No you're right, I really don't care." She walked the other way. "I knew we'd probably suffer major losses, but that doesn't matter now. _Do you have her?_"

That caused Spike to look at the female vampire as well.

"And she is secure?" Whatever the next bit of news caused Harmony to smile. "Okay then. How far away are you?" A briefer pause. "All right. Get her soon but safely. The last thing we need is you getting pulled over by the cops." She started walking back towards Ethan. "We're working on it. Of course now that you've got her I'm less concerned about the other thing." Halfway to him she stopped. "We'll be ready to make the move soon. Good work." She hung up the phone. "Justine and Thompson have the Key. They'll be here in half an hour."

'"What was the damage?" asked Ethan.

"I don't know what happened to them. We lost half the guys who went in. The ones who didn't get dusted are on their way back."

"That's what we expected." Ethan thought for a moment. "How the fuck did Justine…"

"I don't know and I don't care. All that matters is that we have almost everything we need." Harmony turned around. "What about the kid?"

"They've got a bead on him. His class ends in less than twenty minutes. They're going to grab him them." Ethan turned around. "You sure that he's important enough for us to spend the time and vamp-power?"

"I know it'll probably mean nothing. " said Harmony."But this kid is very important to her."

"Wait a minute," mumbled Spike, "they're not talking about Dawn. Who the frag is the kid?"

And suddenly it clicked. "Oh goddess."

"I don't like it when you say that, Red."

Willow ignored him. "I know what they're going to raise. What this evil is."

"Care to fill me in?"

Willow exhaled. "Jasmine."

**9:38:11 - 9:38:12 - 9:38:13 - 9:38:14**

Faith circled the hogtied vampire. She hadn't been in a position like this beforegetting permission to torture someoneand she was soaking it up.

"You know my rep," Faith said as she made her way around again. "You know I'm the dark Slayer. The one who doesn't play nice."

"Yeah." The vampire, Roderick, said nervously

"Funny, I was never really into torture before." She took out a vial of holy water and started fiddling with the cork. "Don't get me wrong, I had no problem making sure vampires met a bad end, a painful one, but torture…I never really had the patience for it."

The vampire tried to move but Cho-San restrained him. "Look I don't know where Rayne and Harmony are, I swear."

Faith walked over to a tray where there were a number of very sharp knives. "Of course I never had such…" she put her hand on a blade "…wonderful toys."

The vampire was becoming really unsettled. "Look I told the other guys that Harmony and Thompson hired me and my crew to be the muscle for this thing. They didn't give any real details. I'm being honest!"

"See the thing is, I was once a greatwell, very goodbullshit artist." Faith approached with a knife in one hand and the vial in the other. "And one of the things about being a master of lying is that you get pretty good at telling when someone's doing it to you." She stopped less than a foot away. "Like you are now."

"I'm not lying about this!" Roderick was becoming more frantic.

"Maybe. But you're hiding something." She walked back to the other table in the room…the one with the cassette player on it. "And I'm betting it's important."

"I'm telling you the truth," said Roderick.

"That's a shame." She pressed play on the recorder. "Stuck In the Middle with You" began playing. Faith walked back to the trussed-up vampire in a fair imitation of Michael Madsen. "Cause now I'm going to do a little acting."

The vampire had clearly seen this movie. He started to struggle but was stopped by Cho-San. "I like this film too," she said quietly.

Faith opened the vial and began to toss the water at the vampire as if she was shaking a gas can, paying particular attention to the face. Roderick started yelling. "What. Do. You. Know. Roderick?" Faith emphasized each word.

A look of genuine fear appeared in the vampires face. "IIcan't—" he sputtered.

Faith sighed. "That's a real shame." She put the bottle down, played with the knife for a few seconds, than began moving towards Roderick.

The exact second the blade touched his ear, he screamed out, "Jasmine wasn't killed!"

That got Faith's attention in a hurry. "That's not possible." she said, pulling the knife back, "Angel saw her face get smashed in."

"You think that you can kill a divine being with a punch to the face?" There was a little cockiness in the vampire's voice. Which disappeared when Faith moved towards him again. "Her spirit and her essence left her physical body."

"Where did it go?" Faith was right in his face

"I don't know. All I know is that's what Rayne and Harmony were planning. To bring back Jasmine!"

Faith threw the knife down. "Keep him tied up, I need to talk to the others." she said and started walking.

Cho-san looked a little confused. "Who's Jasmine?'

"Hopefully, you won't find out.' Faith said without stopping.

**9:44:14 9:44:15 9:44:16**

Willow knew that some of the things that had happened to her and her friends were bizarre and unbelievable, but she had never realized how truly lunatic they sounded until she tried explaining the story of Jasmine to Spike.

"Let me see if I'm following you," said Spike slowly, "Cordeliathe cheerleader, the girl who redefined the word 'shallow'voluntarily became a demon in order to keep helping Angel. That right?"

"Uh, part demon, but yeah."

"Does _every_ woman who works with him end up losing their bloody mind?" Spike asked, exasperated. "What is it, the hair gel?"

"Um, Spike, I think we should concentrate on the more important points," Willow said, trying to remain logical.

"Right, because talking about Angel's son is a much saner avenue to approach."

"Look I realize it's a lot" started Willow.

"No, finding out that those two," he gestured towards Harmony and Ethan, "were behind bringing me back, _that _was a lot to take in. Finding out that Angel had a son who was abducted to a hell dimension where he grew seventeen years in three weeks, came back to kill his father and ending up knocking boots with a girl who had become a vessel for a divine creature…" Spike rolled his eyes. "Christ, _Passions _wouldn't do a story that insane."

Realizing that she couldn't slap the back of Spike's head or grab his shoulders and shake him, Willow settled for taking a reasonable tone: "Spike, I need you to dig in. We are in the middle of a hurricane here and if it keeps blowing like this then you, me and probably everybody we care about will be dead. We need to be prepared to deal with this and that means accepting that a lot of bizarre, unexplainable stuff is involved. Can you deal with it?"

Spike took this in. "Look Samantha, my entire life has been spent dealing with the impossible and the insane. I won't pretend that I understand everything that's going on but I can deal with it. It's just"

"Okay, I'm going to have to cut you off there." Ethan said, walking towards them.

"Why? Is our accuracy bothering you?" Willow asked indignantly.

"No, it's just that I know this story and I'm getting sodding tired of hearing it."

"Well, if we're getting it wrong"

"Nice try, William, but I'm not about to help you put two and two together." Ethan had reached them. "I'm not even going to tell you if you're on the right track," he flashed a very cold smile. "The two of you are going to finish your jobs without even knowing what exactly you've brought about. Can you deal with that, children?"

**9:49:22 9:49:23 9:49:24 9:49:25**

Connor liked political science. He had found Plato's _Republic_ a fascinating treatise but was having a lot of trouble concentrating on Professor Garner's vigorous discussion of its theme. His mind was still spinning from the discussion he'd had with the two crazies that he'd run into one his way to class.

He knew that what the girl Buffy (and who in the world names their child that?) was absolutely insane. It was something out of a Anne Rice/Dean Koontz collaboration only this was even more implausible. That girl needed seriousserious therapy. It was almost funny.

So why couldn't he laugh it off? Why was it still bothering him half an hour after? And why did he keep having this weird ticklehe couldn't think of any other wordin the back of his mind that some part of what she had said was true? It wasn't because either the girl or the young man seemed familiar.

It was the dreams. Those dreams that felt so real. It seemed impossible but hadn't someone said that a dream was an answer to a question we haven't figured out how to ask?

_That's a line from the X-Files, Connor, old bean. _said the rational part of his mind. _Not exactly the best source to back up the insanity you're thinking about. So I'd_

"Do you have a question you want to ask me?"

Connor looked up. Professor Garner was now in front of him.

"Um, no, not really." Connor fumbled.

"Then why are you still here?'

Connor looked around to see that the room was almost empty. "I'm sorry I just got a little lost in my head," he said as he picked up his books.

"I'm glad my class leads you to think that deeply." The professor was a decent guy but one of those people who thought he was being funny when he wasn't. Nevertheless Connor smiled.

"It's okay, it wasn't that funny."

"Right. Um, see you Thursday," Connor said as he left the room. He spent the time it took to get outside trying to shake off the feelings that had come over him the last hour.

"Connor Stevenson?"

He looked up to see two strange men in suits. "That's me."

"You're the son of Angela and Carl Stevenson?"

"Yes."

The man on the left pulled out a badge. "I'm Detective Hodges, this is Detective Magee. We're with the LA traffic division."

Connor was beginning to get concerned. "What's this about, sir?"

The two men looked at each. "Connor, your father was driving to work today and he was blindsided when he stopped at an intersection."

tConnor felt as if he'd been punched in the stomach. "Is…is he…"

"He's in surgery at Sacred Heart in Santa Monica. He's still alive but we need you to come with us to the hospital."

"You guys are really sadistic."

All kinds of emotions were flashing through Connor's head which was why it took him a moment to realize that the three of them weren't alone. The other men reacted faster. "Listen, lady this is personal," said Detective Magee.

"I'll say it is."

Connor now recognized the voice. It was the girl he'd spoken with earlier: "I knew vampires were cruel but I didn't know you could lie this well."

"Lady, I don't know" Before the detective could finish his sentence, the blonde struck him.

Then his face changed.

As did Connor's world.

**9:56:18 9:56:19 9:56:20**

Dawn hadn't thought that it would have been possible for the mood in the car to get more tense, considering, but the longer they drove the more anxious everybody seemed to get. Finally, after Thompson made his third right turn in five minutes, Justine exploded. "For crying out loud, Thompson, how are we getting to the others? By way of fucking Australia?"

Dawn could only see the back of Thompson's head but she thought she could sense tension in his attitude. "I am going the scenic route to make sure that the traffic cameras in this part of town don't see us and the good guys don't track us down. "

Justine took this in. "And what makes you think that they won't be able to find us anyway?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm saying that we've got someone important to the raising we're doing in two hours who just happens to be, oh yeah, the original Slayer's little sister. You'd think, considering everything they have, they'd have the marines chasing us down. " Justine looked out the window. "Now even a damn cop."

Thompson took this in. "You think that they let us take Dawn so we would lead them right to the others."

"No wonder you rose so high on the corporate ladder," Justine said.

Dawn tried to remain perfectly calm even as the car suddenly pulled over to the side of the road.

Thompson turned to the vampires holding Dawn. "Frisk her."

"What are we looking for?" asked the vampire on the left.

"Anything that looks suspicious." said Justine.

The next minute was almost unbearable as Dawn had to endure two vampires groping and touching herbad enoughbut also not act as if there were anything suspicious on her. She was suddenly aware of every cell of her seventeen-year old female body and prayed they would stop at searching her.

She was so wound up that she didn't even notice when they pulled the bracelet off her wrist. She only realized it when the vampires showed the people in the front seat the things in her pockets, a necklace of hersand the bracelet. She managed to maintain her calm façade.

Thompson looked at it. "There are a few things here, but nothing obvious. We're probably fine."

"Just the same—" In a matter of seconds, Justine had everything in her hands. She got out of the car. Dawn remained absolutely stilleven as she listened to Justine step and grind everything into the dirt.

"How far away are we?" Justine said as she got back in.

Thompson checked the odometer. "About three miles."

"Take as confusing a route as you can. We're not going to make it easy."

"They may catch up with us," Thompson said as he started the engine.

"We just need to hold them off a little while more. By the time they find us it'll be too late."

Dawn felt her stomach clench. Now, her main enemy was time.

And it was running out.

**9:59:57 9:59:58 9:59:59 10:00:00**


	11. 10AM to 11AM

Chapter 11

The Following Takes Place Between 10 am and 11 am on the day of the autumnal equinox.

When a big thing happens a life altering, mind shattering thingit can take a long time before you really process what you have just seen. And, as is often the case in the world of the Scoobies, you have to adjust fast or the shock will kill you.

When Connor saw the fake Detective Hodges change his forehead slanting, his eyes turning yellow, fangs appearinghis perception of reality was permanently, massively shifted. Had the two vampires been alone when they tried to snatch him, they could easily have killed him. He would later learn that that _wasn't_ part of their plan, but that wouldn't comfort him much. As it was he stood there for a good ten-count before someone shoved him to the side. He fell in a heap, more from surprise than the force of the push.

Now he was watching Buffy he still couldn't believe that nameand the black man fight these two things. He was still having trouble accepting that they were vampires (how could they be fighting in the middle of a sunny day?) but it was very clear that at least some of what they had told him was true. Vampires and demons were real. Buffy was a vampire slayer. Did that make him

Connor suddenly snapped back to reality. Four very strong hands were grabbing him by the arms and pulling him to his feet. He looked to his left and right and saw two nightmares from a Clive Barker film on either side of him. He didn't know what these creatures were but he was pretty sure they belonged to the same crew.

"Start walking, kid," said the creature on his left. Connor looked to Buffy and the black man. Both were occupied by the two other creatures. Buffy tried to break away but the creature had somehow gotten her hands in a vise-like grip. He was on his own.

_Well, at least part of what they said is true, _Connor thought to himself._ Time to test the other part._

He pulled as hard as he could. The creatures were so surprised that the grip of one loosened a little. Connor took this opportunity to punch him in the face.

The demon fell back against the building. Which was nearly ten feet away. The only one more shocked than the demon was Connor. He hadn't even thought he'd hit it that hard.

The other monster tried to grab his arm. Without even knowing he was going to do it, Connor whirled around and kicked it in the chest. The demon was seven feet tall but the kick nearly doubled it over.

_Maybe there's something to this superhuman stuff_, Connor thought to himself. Then the demons recovered and began running towards him.

Connor hadn't been in a fight since sixth grade. The most experience he had with martial arts had occurred when he had seen a twin bill of _The Matrix_ and _Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon_. But now facing what was definitely a life or death situation, he knew exactly what he had to do.

As the two, very large, demons attempted to bring him down, his senses and reflexes were at a hundred per cent—maybe higher. He knew it even before he started dodging their blows and started dealing out punishment. The demons were bigger than he was but he was stronger and faster, and they knew it. And somehow, even though he had only learned this less than an hour ago, he knew it too.

The first monster fell after a series of hard punches to the head and chest. The last punch that he threwand it was a hard oneknocked whatever it was into the wall hard enough to crack the plaster. Connor barely had a second to consider what he had done before the second demon was on him. He was about to fight it when something occurred to him.

"Why are you trying to kill me?" he shouted at the demon.

The demon didn't stop moving but it responded: "You're the one trying to kill us. Our orders are to take you alive."

Connor was about to argue the point when he realized the demons could have killed him while he was still out of it. If that were true

"Take me to who?" he asked.

"Oh no," it said, "I'm not going to help you help them."

"I think that's exactly what you're going to do." Before he could even acknowledge the voice, the demon was knocked backwards into the trunk of the tree.

Connor turned around to see Buffy. "I could have handled this myself," he said.

"We need to know what he knows," Buffy replied. "He needs to stay alive, at least for now. Robin?'

The black manwhose name appeared to be Robinwalked over to them. "Yeah?"

"You okay?"

Connor then noticed that, unlike Buffy whose hair barely seemed mussed, Robin was breathing very hard.

"I'll be fine."

Buffy looked at Robin for a second. "Call home base." she finally said. "Tell them what happened to us and ask them if they have any frigging clue where Ethan and Harmony are."

"Right." He walked off.

"Before you talk to him, you'd better talk with me," Connor said with a confidence he did not feel.

Buffy looked exasperated but she summoned her patience. "What do you want to know?" she asked

Connor took a deep breath and crossed the last bridge. "What were you talking about when you mentioned the end of the world?"

**10:09:36 /10:09:37 /10:09:38/ 10:09:39**

Earlier Gunn had found himself feeling nostalgic for the times when breaking into Wolfram & Hart had been a regular occurrence. Now, in an even more bizarre twist, he found that he was yearning for the days that they had spent fighting the Beast. Then there had been shocking event after shocking event, but at least you had a few hours to adjust to each big thing. Now they were getting them right on top of each other. Gunn was having a hard time keeping track of all their problems. In the past hour alone he had had to deal with Dawn letting herself be kidnapped, Connor being targeted for some reason, and that Jasmine was still around and probably the goal of the raising in less than two hours. And now, apparently just to make things fun, Dawn's tracker had just gone dead.

"All right, explain to me why you're not worried about losing Dawn?" Xander asked, sounding agitated, which Gunn had come to learn meant that he was very worried.

"Because we haven't lost Dawn," said Fred.

Gunn wasn't sure he could take much more off this. "Fred, if you're being metaphysical" he started

"I mean that the homing device isn't the only way I can track Dawn." Fred walked over to one of the other computers in the tech room. "The minute Justine took Dawn I began to coordinate the same traffic camera system that I used to track Ethan and Harmony."

Gunn didn't think that, considering how effectively Harmony and Ethan had managed to give them the slip, using that as an example helped her case. Nevertheless, he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. It was Fred after all.

"However, this time I had something I didn't have before: an idea where she's going." Fred began typing. An image of the LA streets appeared. "Knowing what streets Dawn was on from the homing devices, I was able to track her movements visually as well as on the computer." She pointed to the silver Volvo on the screen. "That's the car that Justine put Dawn in forty minutes ago." She punched the keyboard again. "We keep following her using both methods until"

"she smiles for the camera," said Lorne, looking at a picture of the Volvo with Justine outside, stomping on something. Probably the transmitter.

"The cameras keep following this car until…"Fred punched up one last image. It showed Justine, a man in a suit and two vamps standing together heading east.

"Where is that?" Wesley asked.

"The outskirts of Little Tokyo. "

"That's where they are?"

Fred looked at her watch. "As of three minutes ago." She turned to the second computer with the digitized map of LA. She pressed a button and magnified a section. "They've gotta be around there."

"That's a half-hour from here," Gunn said

"We have to move now." Everyone turned to Angel, walking towards them. "Gunn, get Faith and Giles. Tell them to meet us in the garage in five minutes. "

"Are we going in full force?" Xander asked.

Angel shook his head. "They see us coming, they'll kill Willow and Dawn. We need a small but strong offense. Ten, maybe twelve people."

"In that case we'd better call Buffy and Robin," Gunn said. "They're strong fighters and they're closer than we are."

"But Connor" Fred started.

"is part of this." Wesley interrupted. "Besides, we can't spend time securing him."

Angel considered it for a good twenty seconds.. "He's right. Call them, tell them to hurry but not to attack until we get there. We don't know how many henchmen they've got in their corner. They could get overrun." He turned around. "Let's move."

As he started to go Angel spoke softly. So soft only Gunn, who was standing right beside him, could hear."God forgive me."

**10:15:59/ 10:16:00 /10:16:01**

The warehouse had very good acoustics so that when the knock came, everybody in the building heard it. Including Willow and Spike.

Harmony's reaction was a measure of how much she had improved. She didn't run to the door and yell "Who is it?" She didn't even walk to the door. Instead, she made a gesture with her hand and a minion went.

The vampire looked through a crack in the door. "It's them," he said.

"Any sign of the do-gooders?" asked Ethan. The vamp shook his head.

"Let them in," said Harmony.

In came a group of strangers: a strong-looking red-haired woman, a man in a suit and two vamps. Willow only noticed that later because her attention was drawn to the girl the vampires were holding.

"Well here we are," Harmony said as she walked to Dawn. She smiled broadly. "I'll bet you never thought you'd be my prisoner again."

Dawn looked at the female vampire defiantly. "You didn't have crap to do with this, Harmony. You just let a bunch of vamps do all the dirty work, and she—" she gestured towards the redhead "carried me the rest of the way. I don't know what your plan is, but I can't wait for my sister and my friends to get here and dust your ass."

The smile on Harmony's face disappeared. She looked at the vamps. "Are you absolutely certain that she has to be pure?" she asked Ethan.

"You know that." said Ethan.

Before Ethan had finished, she struck Dawn in the face hard. "Listen up, mini-Slayer, if it weren't for the fact we need you for this ritual I'd cut your throat right here. We need you to be warm for it, so you'll live. But listen up: the second that we no longer need you alive, I intend to bleed you, drain you and turn you." Harmony's face changed and Willow didn't think she had ever looked more evil. "I may end up dust before the day is out, but I'll be able to take the fact that your sister will have seen the one thing she cares about most turned into the thing she hates the most with me." She leaned in. "_Got it, bitch?"_

Dawn's face barely changed but Willow could see that a lot of fight had gone out of her.

Ethan looked at the redhead. "Do you think they've been trailing you?" he asked.

She thought for a second. "We didn't see anyone but that doesn't mean that they're not out there," she finally answered.

"We'll have to chance it." Ethan turned towards Willow and Spike. "Get them up and ready to move."

Dawn appeared to wilt still further. "This isn't the hideout?"  
"It was," Harmony said smugly. "But it's not where we're performing the eutrasia. By the time your Shaggy friends find out where we are, it'll be too late for everyone." She grinned. "How do you like them apples, pumpkin?"

**10:21:14/ 10:21:15 /10:21:16 /10:21:17**

Buffy's second talk with Connor went a lot better than her first, mainly because the young man knew he could no longer dismiss her as a madwoman. She had hoped that Connor would understand the magnitude of the problem without asking for more details. He seemed to be accepting things—so far.

"All right, Connor, we don't have much time so if there's anything else you need to know, now's the time to ask."

"I only have two questions." Connor said.

That was two more than Buffy wanted to answer, but she knew that he might never get another chance. "All right, what are they?"

"You said that Angel created a new set of memories for me and my parents and everyone else about me, except for himself. " Connor looked at her. "So how come you and Robin know my life story?"

That, at least, she could explain. "After Angel agreed to the deal, some of the people who worked with him began having trouble remembering what had happened over the past two yearsand how they had ended up working for the enemy." Buffy took a deep breath because the next part confused her. "So he had a spell cast that would allow only the people who worked at Wolfram & Hart would be able to remember the circumstance of your birth—and life. When me and my friends came to work here in LA, we kind of got" she gestured with her hands "swept in. So that's how I know." She waited to see if he was going to ask for more details.

"All right, I think I get that," Connor finally said.

"What's your other question?"

"You said that when Angel took this deal it was conditional on me not being a part of any more of this…whole thing, right?"

Buffy nodded.

"If that's the case, and I'm not mentioned in the prophecy that you're trying to stop, why are these vampires coming after me?"

Buffy had hoped he wouldn't ask that. "I can't say for certain, Connor. What I do know is that before he made this deal, you were specifically mentioned in a lot of prophecies as someone who would be a major force on the side of either good or evil. My guess is that someone on the dark side wants to make sure that you don't interfere if you're on the good side, or in their corner if you're on the bad side."

He took that in. "But the deal—"

"Connor, and I'm speaking from personal experience, sometimes as much as we want to and no matter how hard people try we can't escape our fate."

He didn't appear to like her answer but before he could follow up Robin walked towards them. He looked about as happy as Connor did. "What's happening at Angel-Slayer?" Buffy asked.

"Cliff notes version?" Robin took a deep breath. "While we were tracking down Ethan and Harmony, another contingent of the bad guys attacked the office. While they were defending themselves Justine got loose and abducted Dawn."

The fear that came whenever her sister was in danger kicked in. For a split second, she was afraid that she was going to mentally overload. Very quietly she said: "Do they have any idea where she is?"

"Yes. Apparently Fred placed a tracking signal on Dawn in case of just this kind of occasion. They know where she is, and they're pretty sure that Willow and Spike are there too."

Suddenly Buffy could breathe again. "Where do they think she is?"

"Less than ten minutes away from us in Little Tokyo. They're getting ready to launch a rescue mission, and since we're closer to it than they are"

Buffy had started moving when Robin said 'rescue.' She had gotten forty feet before she heard Robin speak again. "What are we going to do about Connor?"

"Easy," said Connor. "I'm coming with you."

Focused as she was, Buffy still spun around when she heard him. "Uh-uh!" she said as Connor closed the distance between them. "Angel will be royally pissed when he finds out that I've put you at risk."

Connor kept moving. "According to you, I'm already at risk. Besides I can't just sit still if the world's in this much trouble."

Despite the impending doom, Buffy found herself smiling at Connor.

"What?" he said.

"You really are your father's son." Buffy turned around. "Come on, we've got to hurry.'

**10:29:09/ 10:29:10 /10:29:11**

Dawn had realized that she wasn't going to get any more information from Justine or Thompson, and that Ethan and Harmony were even less likely to talk. So she decided, as the pick-up they were being held in started to move, that she would try and help put the pieces together with the only ones who would help her. First, though

"Spike." The vampire turned to her. " This is probably the stupidest question in the world to ask, but…um…how are you doing?"

He looked at her, bemused. "Considering that a few hours ago my chestnuts were roasting on an open fire and that I'm about to help the next Big Bad enter stage wherever, I'm doing all right."

Despite the direness of the situation, it was somehow reassuring to hear Spike talk like this. She looked past him to Willow. "How about you, Will?"

"Other than the trio of terror has managed to neuter me, I feel okay." Willow took a deep breath. "I just don't know how I'm going to feel when they perform this eutrasia."

"I don't understand how you're not kicking Harmony's ass," Dawn said.

"It's these damn ropes they've got us tied up with." Spike squirmed. "Whatever they're using has powerful mojo. They're not as painful as a chip in the head, but they get the job done."

"How the hell did they get stuff like this?" asked Dawn.

"That's a good question," said Willow. "I've got a bunch of them. Like where Ethan Rayne managed to get the kind of magic he has? Or how Harmony managed to get smart. Or who the hell that woman managed to get you out of Wolfram & Hart."

Dawn could answer that question but she knew better than to do it while she was in the back of an evil henchman's car. So she gave a half answer. "Her name is Justine Cooper and the reason she managed to grab me is because she's a slayer."

Willow processed that. "She's a…a… And she working with Ethan and Harmony?"

"Yes, because a slayer would never turn to the dark side," said Spike tiredly. "Deal with it, Red."

"Great," said Willow. "So Ethan and Harmony have this powerful magic, anti-magic gear, a shitload of help including a slayer, and now all the artifacts and people needed to somehow resurrect Jasmine."

"Wait a minute, that's what all these raisings are for?" asked Dawn, reeling. "To bring back Jasmine?"

"Yes, and it looks like we're going to have front row seats to it."

"Maybe." Suddenly Spike seemed calmer. "Maybe not."

"What? What are you thinking?'

"I'm thinking slayer or no slayer, there's no way that anyone manages to just grab a Summers woman and walk out." Spike fixed a look on Dawn. "Not unless she wants to go."

Willow considered that too. "Dawnie, is the cavalry coming?" she asked quietly.

Speaking, she hoped, without any inflection she said, "I hope so, Will. I hope so."

**10:34:40 /10:34:41/ 10:34:42 /10:34:43**

When Fred had told Andrew that only eleven people were going on what they hoped would be a search and rescue mission, and that he wasn't to be one of them, she had expected, given his earlier reaction, that he would raise seven shades of hell. Instead all he said was "I'm working," and to continued follow up with the computerized tracking system that he had been using to try and find Dawn.

Now as Fred continued to follow the progress of the team (the cars were equipped with superior global tracking systems) she began to wonder why Andrew was being so silent.

She knew that it was a stupid thing to get bogged down on, considering the situation, but there wasn't much more she could do. Whatever happened when good met evil she was going to be on the sidelines. It was in the hands of the champions of Angel-Slayer. So she decided to see if she could try and smooth things over with Andrew, if only to ease her conscience.

When she walked over to Andrew's computer, however, she saw that he was looking not at Little Tokyo but at what seemed to be a public library. That wasn't all that was strange. Before all their pictures had been stills, but this…

"Andrew, how did you tap into a video feed?" she asked, looking over shoulder.

Andrew didn't turn around as he said: "You know that Wolfram & Hart has a lot of government contracts."

"Yeah..." said Fred, unsure of where he was going.

"And a lot of these contracts involve satellite feeds, including some in LA?"

It had been a bone of contention among the board of Angel Slayer Inc. "Yes, but we never figured out how to use them properly," Fred said.

"Well, you have now," said Andrew.

Fred was stunned. Both she and Willow were top-notch computer hackers but neither had ever tried something of this magnitude. "Wait a minute, you know how to do this kind of hack?"

"Hey I was part of a team of supernerds. One of the prerequisites was being able to hack into four forbidden places before breakfast." Andrew paused. "That sounded better in my head."

"This is all very interesting. Why are you doing it?"

"No reason." said Andrew almost cheerfully. "I just decided to check and see if I could get a live picture of the area they were in. But funny thing, five minutes ago I see people going in this warehouse."

Fred began to feel a chill inside. "And?"

"And five minutes later they start driving out of the warehouse heading east."

It was getting worse. "How the hellThe traffic camera photos" she sputtered.

"Are five minutes behind what's really happening." Andrew sounded pissed.

"I've got to call Angel and the others. Tell them to change direction. Fast."

"Yes, because we want to give up the element of surprise on our enemy," Andrew said sarcastically.

Suddenly Fred had had enough. She pulled Andrew's chair away from the computer. "Andrew, we are minutes away from trying to stop this raising."

"And what makes you think we can? I was there when we tried to stop the first one. Angel, Faith and Buffy were all there and they couldn't do shit!" Andrew said, standing now. "And now we're sending them into what could be an army of enemies and you think we have a chance to stop them!" He practically shouted at her.

And because Andrew had tapped into her worst fear, she did the only thing she could: "Do you have a location for them?"

Andrew was breathing hard but he answered. "They're just outside a warehouse in Chinatown."

Fred breathed. "I'm going to call Wesley. Tell me if you see anything else that looks funky." She walked away and pulled out her cell phone. Hoping that they could still pull this off.

**10:41:22/10:41:23/ 10:41:24**

Now that they seemed to have come to their final _final _destinationwhich seemed to be on the outskirts of ChinatownWillow found that her anxiety over their situation was becoming overwhelmed by her concern of what was going to happen.

As he walked over from his car, Ethan apparently noticed the look on her face. "All right, now what's on your mind?"

Since she couldn't gesture with her hands Willow turned her head to the busy street. "I'm just a little curious about how you intend to do whatever the heck you're going to do without any of _them_ noticing."

"Oh my," Ethan said in mock alarm. "We never considered that. What are we to do?"

"We're here because there are so many people here, you big ignoramuses—ignorami—" Harmony struggled for a while, then gave up. "You idiots."

"In order to amass the life force needed to bring back Jasmine…" Willow stopped speaking as the savageness of what they were planning hit her.

"You're going to drain the life of everyone in this neighborhood?" Dawn finished. "You… You…"

"Monsters? You know that's such a cruel and villainous idea it almost makes me wish we were doing that," said Harmony.

"If we were going to do that," Ethan said smugly, "all we'd be doing is guaranteeing that we'd be dead when the ritual was finished. And we're not idiots."

"Could've fooled me," murmured Spike.

Ethan ignored him. "These rituals are like the Three Bears. Too little energy and Jasmine won't come back. Too much and the power might destroy us and everything in a ten block radius. So we have to get it _just right_."

"And I suppose you have a magical measuring device that's going to tell you how much magic energy you need," Dawn said sarcastically.

"As a matter of fact we do." Harmony had always sounded annoying, now she had a smug tone Willow was finding unbearable. "Thompson?" The man in the suit produced a gold bracelet with a red stone in the center.

"Behold the Bracelet of Navarre," said Ethan. "Designed by a Shaman in the pre- Assyrian Era, it was supposedly used to measure the amount of magical energy in the air. When a certain amount was around the stone, rather like a traffic light, it would change colorgreen for very little, yellow for medium, red for too much. And if the thing turned red while it was on your wrist… Well lets just say you wouldn't be collecting a pension."

"So you're going to wear that to check the magic energy," said Spike.

"No, sweetie," Harmony said, walking toward them. "You are." She pointed at Dawn.

Though she had been expecting something like this, the shock hit Willow very hard. "You bitch! This is beyond cruel even for you!"

Ethan smiled. "She isn't called 'lakuta' for nothing. And I'd worry about yourself. You and Spike are going to be neck deep in this."

"Buffy will save us!" said Dawn with a confidence that she didn't feel.

"I hope she tries," Justine said. "I'm aching to finish with her."

"In any case, time is short." Harmony turned and yelled at the henchmen: "All right people, we have less than an hour to finish setting up." She smiled maliciously. "The three of you should get ready for your big scenes."

**10:47:49/10:47:50/10:47:51/10:47:52**

Ever since Angel had begun the process of becoming a champion, he had become very good at being able to put his emotions aside. If he hadn't he would never have been able to fight alongside Buffy for three years, let alone survive in LA.

So when Angel had learned that, despite his deal with Wolfram & Hart, Connor had been targeted and was now a part of the battle, he tried to put that information away in the part of himself that dealt with those things. Unfortunately the thirty minute drive to Little Tokyo had given him a lot of time to ruminate on what was going to happen, and at least some of it was going to deal with his son. Though he spent much of the drive going over what they were going to do when they faced Ethan and Harmony with Faith and Giles, he was still distracted by his fears. It was always hard to deal with an end-of-the-world scenario, harder when Buffy was involved, but he wasn't sure if even his reserve could hold out when the two most important people in his life were involved.

He was so wound up about it that he was grateful when Fred called Giles five minutes later and told them that the bad guys had taken Willow, Spike and Dawn to Chinatown. It gave him another five minutes to deal with what was coming. He thought that Faith and Patrice (the others had gone in another car) were also glad for the delay but for different reasons. In their case they probably needed to prepare themselves for the battle. So did he, but the situation with Connor worried him more.

Unfortunately, he thought as he pulled into an alley two blocks away from their final destination, time was almost up for all of them.

"All right," he said. "Everyone ready? Giles, how are we on that dissolving spell?"

Giles had been wrestling with that for the entire ride. He sighed. "Well, acting on the theory that the spell they used was from the Poloxa, I have adapted a sort of anti-Poloxan spell that should be able to cut through their energy barrier." Giles fumbled with his glasses. "Of course we do have to take into consideration that they may have more than one kind of barrier spell."

"Can it work on other kinds of barriers?" Patrice asked.

Giles stumbled a little, "…It might be able to, but I'm not Willow. The spells that I know are less powerful and less likely to work in a specific way. " He squeezed the bridge of his nose. "And there is the possibility that they may be able to utilize Willow's magic to make it more difficult."

"Then let's hope you're stronger than you think," said Angel.

"If they have the same spell around Willow and Dawn and we can't get through it then"

"We know, Angel," Faith said, looking at him. "It's time to do this."

Though he didn't need to, Angel took a deep breath. "All right," he put his hand on the door, "let's go."

They got out the car and started heading to the end of the alley.

**10:54:03/10:54:04/ 10:54:05**

With all the confusion, it took Buffy, Robin and Connor an additional ten minutes to drive to the place where they were going to meet Angel. So it wasn't until they had all gotten out of the car that Buffy had realized that she had to find out what was going on with the man she'd been working with for nearly five hours.

"Robin, are you all right?" she asked without preliminaries.

"Well I've spent the better part of today fighting evil without letup, I've been watching us fall short time after time, and I'm about to go into a major battle that could very easily result in my death. I'm doing just peachy." Robin sounded slightly amused but Buffy could sense something more. And he hadn't been looked directly at her through his spiel.

"I know things have been really intense over the past few hours," Buffy slowed her pace in order to keep walking with him, "but you've been awfully quiet."

"Well I know it's generally good not to interrupt you." Again something in his tone belied the lightness of the response.

"You've also been looking a little tired and pale."

Robin turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

"Well, as pale as I guess you can get… I didn't mean to say…your skin is very..."

Robin seemed genuinely amused. "Keep talking like that, honey."

Buffy swallowed her words and tried again. "Look, Robin, we're about to go into a major battle. Not just my life and yours but those of our friends will be at risk. If you aren't up to this I need to know _now_." She put her hand on Robin's shoulder. "Can you do this?"

Robin actually considered for a few seconds. Finally, he turned to her and said: "Believe me when I tell you this Buffy, I am absolutely capable of putting my life on the line." He looked her straight in the eye. "I can do this. Okay?"

Normally Buffy wouldn't have just accepted that. But they were almost out of time and needed all hands. "All right." She turned to Connor who had been lagging behind. "Connor? Light a fire under it."

The young man started walking quicker. By the time they reached the others, he was matching her stride for stride which, as the others could have testified, was no easy feat.

Angel saw them first. If he was upset or alarmed that his son was there, he gave no sign of it.

"Do you see them Willow or Dawn?" Buffy decided not to be the one to mention Spike. "Are they there?"

Angel shook his head. "No, but I'm sure we're in the right spot." He pointed straight ahead.

Buffy, Connor and Faith were the only ones in the group with enhanced vision, but even the average Scooby could have seen what was ahead. About a quarter-mile straight ahead was an empty deserted building. Painted on its side were a number of mystical looking graffiti around a giant yellow cross.

On the pavement directly next to it was a huge red pentagram. And if you squinted you could see in the star were three small black x's.

**10:59:57/10:59:58/10:59:59/11:00:00**


	12. 11AM to 12PM

Chapter 12

The Following Takes Place Between 11 am and 12 pm on the day of the Autumnal Equinox

Considering that it was late September, there was no hint of Fall in the air. It seemed like it was going to be a very nice day. Of course since Angel had only been out in the sun one other time in two hundred and fifty years, he was in no position to make judgments about the weather, but still it seemed beautiful. He scanned the area around the building for henchmen wishing, for what was probably the tenth time in the last five hours, that he could take a few seconds to revel in the beauty of the day. But, then, if he had had the time he wouldn't be here at all. Irony was coming pretty cheap today.

After another ten seconds of looking at the horizon he finally turned around to Giles. "It's no good," he said, exasperated. "I can make out people moving. I can tell where they're coming from, but I can't get a good count as to how many there are or where they're positioned."

Giles turned to Patrice and Xander, who were both looking at the same area with high powered binoculars. "Either of you having any luck?" he asked.

"Yeah," said Xander sarcastically "I think I can see the Hollywood sign from here. Oh, you meant can I tell where the enemy is? No, I'm afraid on that we're shit out of luck."

"We have no choice," said Wesley. "Someone has to get closer and tell us what we're up against."

"You don't just mean closer," Faith said, gesturing towards the buildings nearby. "You mean getting to higher ground. Double the risk."

"If we don't know what we're going into, they'll slaughter us before we get anywhere near Willow, Dawn and Spike." Angel practically gagged over the last name but no one seemed to notice as he continued, "We've got forty-five minutes, maybe less, before this thing happens. We have to do this now."

The eleven of them Angel, Faith, Patrice and Giles on one side; Wesley, Kennedy, Xander and Gunn on the other; Connor, Buffy and Robin in the middle all considered the situation. Finally, Faith stepped forward: "All right. I'll do it."

Xander was the first to speak. "Didn't you just say that this was a very bad idea?"

Faith nodded. "I did and it is. But if we're going to do it, it's gotta be done by someone fast who can take care of herself." Buffy seemed about to object. "And who the bad guys won't identify in five seconds."

Wesley thought for a few seconds. Finally he spoke. "Ten minutes max. You have to be back here by 11:15 at the absolute latest. As it is we're probably cutting it too close."

Faith took off.

Angel turned around. "We should split into smaller groups. We're too conspicuous here and we need to widen the net."

Buffy nodded. "We should probably have one Slayer in each group to be safe. "She turned to Xander. "I think I'd work best with Xander and Robin."

"In that case I want Giles and Gunn." said Kennedy.

Angel thought for a few seconds. "Wes, take Patrice and Connor. Faith and I should be able to hold our own."

Wes was about to assent when suddenly Connor spoke up: "Actually I'd rather fight with you."

Had there been more time Angel would have said absolutely not and given a laundry list of reasons why. But they didn't have time. "Fine. Wes can you manage with only Patrice?"

"I think so."

"All right, I'll stay here and wait for Faith." Angel turned from Wes to the others." The rest of you carefully and slowly move out. We'll keep in touch by keeping our cells on. This is the big one. We have to stop them now."

**11:06:48/11:06:49/ 11:06:50**

Willow had seen so many strange things in the last ten hours alone that she didn't think anything else could surprise her. So she hadn't been shocked when Ethan chanted for a few seconds and the previously pristine pavement suddenly changed to reveal a red pentagrama red that didn't look like paint. Or that, when he stepped on the very edge of the circle, it suddenly seemed like the air was full of electricity. What did surprise her was that the streets, while not crowded, had people still on them and none of them appeared to notice what was going on around them.

"All right. What have you done now?" she asked Harmony

"Hmm. You mean all the lonely people, where do they all belong?" Harmony seemed to be genuinely enjoying herself. "Well when we arrived Ethan cast a very nice cloaking spell. Only people who know magic will be able to see what's happening around the warehouse."

"Aha!" Finally Willow had spotted a hole in their planning. "Then doesn't that mean all of your minions who are out patrolling won't be able to see if something goes wrong?" she asked triumphantly.

"Ehhhh! Wrong again! The spell doesn't affect anyone with supernatural powers. And, as you can see," Harmony gestured at the vamps around them. "we've got that gap covered."

For a moment Willow was at a loss for words. Dawn, however, was not: "How long has this been in the works?" she asked exasperated. "I mean, you couldn't have just thrown this together over a weekend! Getting all of the artifacts, the thing at the Hollywood Bowl, here… How long have you people been planning this?"

"I already told Blondie and Sabrina here that we're not giving away any of our secrets," Harmony answered smugly.

Spike scowled. "For crying out loud Harm, she's not trying to find out what your goal is. We want to know stuff you've already done. Besides if I'm going to truly die, I'd at least like to know why."

"So the poet in you is still writing, William."

Unnerved, Spike looked at Ethan. "How do you know me so bloody well? We've never even met."

"Ah but the file on you, William my boy, is legendary."

"File? Wait a minute." A synapse in her head fired and a horrible idea had just occurred to Willow. It was frightening how logical it seemed. "You're not saying that you were a Watcher?"

"You're supposed to be the brains of that band of do-gooders and you're only now figuring this out?" Ethan shook his head. "I am deeply, deeply disappointed."

Willow barely heard him. "That's how you got a hold of the rope that I'm trapped with. That's how you found the artifacts for the rituals."

"You give the pinheads on the council too much credit," Ethan said smugly. "I'll admit the council did leave a few markers here and there, but I found most of the information myself." He glanced at Harmony and Thompson. "With a little help from the dark side, of course."

"Which one was more helpful, the soulless bloodsucker or Harmony?" Dawn asked sarcastically.

"I won't deny that being bankrolled by, lets call him a Mr. M, shall we, was a helpful," said Ethan, "but there were certain areas Harmony was very useful in."

"I really don't want to know the subtext there," said Willow, appalled by even the thought.

"So you recruited a gang of vampires, got the artifacts, got the magic spells." Dawn said. "How long did all that take?"

"Oh, not that long." said Ethan. "In fact I had enough spare time to set a fewhow shall I put itdeath charges in case you and your friends got too close."

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh I figured Ripper and the rest of your merry band would eventually catch on to my plan." Ethan began walking towards Dawn. "So when we were locating the artifacts, I left some toy surprises in case you found them." His grin had turned predatory. "Little traps laced with a nasty poison mixture I whipped up. Kills very slowly and very painfully."

"But… if someone else had found them" Willow started.

Ethan shook his head. "I know, a waste of good scopolamine. But what's the point of worshipping chaos if you can't cause some?"

"You sick fuck." If stares could killed, Willow would have hit Ethan at ten yards.

"Don't get all wound up," said Ethan. "As far as I know your friends were so incompetent they never found them. Which is a great shame because…" He looked at his watch. "It would be starting to kick in about now." He shook his head. "I would have liked to see Ripper dying in agony. But who knows?" He began walking away. "Maybe I'll still get a chance."

**11:14:58/ 11:14:59/ 11:15:00/ 11:15:01**

"You know I didn't hit me until now," Connor said suddenly, "but I'm cutting school right now."

Since he had been told that Connor was somehow involved, Angel had been contemplating all the things that his son might say to him. That particular phrase had never come to mind. "I'm sure your professors will understand if you can explain right," he said without taking his eyes from the horizon.

"Somehow I don't know if they'll consider helping my vampire father and his friends stop an army of demons from taking over the world as a reasonable excuse." Connor thought for a moment. "Unless you wrote a really good letter of explanation."

Angel had heard all that but his mind fixed on one phrase. "You know you just called me your father," he said without any outward sign of emotion.

"Well don't put too much stock in it. I'm not entirely comfortable calling you that." Connor spoke with as little emotion as Angel had. "I just don't know what else to call you right now."

As much as Angel didn't want to have this conversation, part of him desperately wanted to hear it. "How has your life been going?" His voice cracked a little.

"You tell me. According to Buffy, you're the one who arranged it so I remember my life the way that I do."

There was no accusation in Connor's tone. Still Angel felt inclined to reply: "Look, I know that what I did to you was selfish..."

"...but you were looking out for me. It's all right, Angel. The life I was living before seemed pretty crappy and I only got the Cliffs notes version from Buffy." Connor's voice grew a little lighter. "It must have been pretty lousy for everyone involved."

Angel thought. "It wasn't all bad. Well I could have lived without the three-month vacation in the Pacific but…" he trailed off as he saw something running towards them.

"What three month…?" Connor trailed off too as he saw what his father had seen.

"You know, Faith, when we say come back at 11:15, we generally expect you to be back at 11:15." Angel said as the dark-haired Slayer came into view.

"Well, excuse me, but checking the area for vampires and demons without being caught isn't as easy as it seems," she replied. "Especially when there are a shitload of vampires and demons."

Angel winced, though he had suspected as much. "What are we looking at?"

"We have four on each side of the perimeter of the warehouse. That's not the big problem." Faith pointed at the circle. "There are at least eight nasties guarding the pentagram, but as far as I can tell they're not using an energy field like at the Hollywood Bowl. "

"What about Willow and Dawn?"

Faith sighed. "Best I can tell, they're in the warehouse itself. Right now they've got a dozen uglies guarding them, not counting the Three Big Evil Stooges."

Angel did the math. "So they've got at least twenty eight vampires and demons standing between us and our friends."

There was a mischievous smile on Faith's face. "I know: a small army versus four Slayers, two watchers, two Scoobies, Angel junior and a partridge in a pear tree… Hardly seems fair."

"I appreciate your confidence but we can't just rush in like we did last time."

Faith thought for a second. "You told the others to split up, right? That's why they're not here."

"Yeah. What are you thinking?" Angel spoke cautiously. Not having been around for the last apocalypse he didn't know that Faith had improved her ability to strategize..

"Three groups, each with a Slayer." Faith was thinking better than he thought; she knew the game plan and she hadn't been there for the huddle.

"Yeah. Everybody's got their phones on, waiting for a plan."

"All right, I think we should have one group attack each side of the perimeter to serve as a diversion. While they're handling that, B, Xander and Robin should cut around the back of the warehouse and try and get the prisoners."

"What are we going to be doing?" Connor asked.

Faith looked directly ahead. "We're going straight up the middle."

**11:21:27 / 11:21:28 / 11:21:29**

"So you've done all this manipulating, all this hunting and gathering, all this dark magic, all this sacrificing…and you don't even know what the end result will be," Willow said, amazed.

"Shit !" said Spike. "Any villain worth his salt has a goal in mind. Even the First knew what its bloody endgame was! But you fools…"

Harmony seemed a little put off by their reaction but not upset. "It doesn't matter. Once we perform the eutrasia we'll be working with a power no one can stand against. The world will be ours to command no matter what condition it's in."

Spike looked at Ethan who shrugged. "Super wizard or not I still worship Chaos. If that's the end result I don't need to know the details."

Willow tried to stare at the man in the suit. "And I suppose that this apocalypse somehow plays into the hands of Wolfram & Hart," she muttered sarcastically.

Thompson's expression didn't change. "There's a bigger picture to everything. As long as we're at the table, we don't care what's on it." He looked at his watch. "However, time has become short. Miss Kendall I believe you have an appointment to keep."

"He's right, we've got to get started," said Ethan. "Harmony."

"Right." She walked towards the dozen minions guarding Willow, Dawn and Spike. "All right, people, we know where we're going."

As some of the vampires began moving, Dawn looked around in astonishment. "So you've arranged for this big raising and you're not even going to stay around for it? What the hell is that about?"

Harmony gave a superior smile. "Oh we're going to be exactly where we need to be."

Willow didn't like the look on her face. "You're talking in riddles, Harmony."

"Yeah. Shame you're never going to solve this one." She gestured towards the minions who weren't gathering behind her. "Time to put the pieces on the board," she said leaving.

The vampires moved in on Willow. Suddenly she felt very afraid. Not because that she was scared of dying, but because she didn't know what would happen after that.

The vampires loosened the ropes enough so that they could move the three of them. "Double time, fellows, we're on the clock," Ethan said. The vamps grumbled but picked up the pace.

In less than a minute, the three of them were at the edge of the pentagram.

"All right." Ethan stood a few feet away with a hand on his chin. "We start by putting our somilere over there."

The vampires moved Spike inside the pentagram. As he crossed the border Willow felt a sudden crackle in the air.

Spike felt it too. "What the hell was that?"

"Ah the tingle. That means it's working, children." Ethan rubbed his hands together gleefully. "All right, put Miss Rosenberg on Spike's left."

As they began moving Willow, Justine ran up to Ethan. She seemed wound up. "Can we move this thing along?"

"You need to see your dentist?" asked Ethan bemused.

"Two of the guards on the perimeter have disappeared. I think we're about to get hit."

Ethan's expression didn't change. "Then you'd better make sure that they don't get here. We're not getting stopped on the one yard line." As Justine left, he turned back to the vamps. "Step lively, boys."

_Hurry Buffy_ ,Willow thought as they pushed her on to the pentagram.

**11:27:42 / 11:27:43 / 11:27:44 / 11:27:45**

Faith hoped that, by having Kennedy's and Patrice's groups attack the perimeter, the bad guys would have to divert their forces on either side, making attacking up the center easier. Unfortunately, for what seemed to be the thirtieth time today, the villains weren't that dumb. They realized an attack on their borders almost definitely meant they were going to be attacked through the middle and sent the majority of their hordes right at Connor, Angel and herself.

Of course technically the makeshift army that Ethan and Harmony had assembled was surrounded by the good guysif eight people could surround twenty others. The numbers did not spell success, even if three of the white hats were Slayers. Would that help them out in the end?

Faith hoped so.

And then there was no time to think about it because the first wave was on them.

Faith looked over her first opponent. This vampire was unusually tallat least six foot six.

"The Clippers could use a guy like you for their center." Faith joshed.

The vamp didn't reply, just attacked. That was a bad sign. A rule of thumb with monsters was the less they talked the more concentrated they were on the battle at hand. This one was no exception. What was more, despite the vamp's size, it was very agile. He dodged her punches and kicks like he was Holyfield.

Faith did her best but was slowly being pushed into a wall. She decided to try something that she didn't think had been done by anyone, except maybe in "The Matrix: Reloaded," before running out of room.

She turned and ran to the wall and then jumped on it. The springboard-like effect propelled her into the tall vamps chest, knocking it backwards. The vampire still reacted quickly, but in not quick enough to save itself. She had her stake raised and gravity helped push it through the vampire's chest.It was dust before she hit the ground.

Faith had no time to savor the victory. Another demon was upon her almost instantly. It was big and green and had something oozing out of its poresFaith prayed it was sweat. Hoping that it wasn't poisonous, she began to strike the demon repeatedly in the stomach. She soon stopped because it caused more slime to flow. This demon wasn't as hard to fight as the vampire, but the slime was making it hard to land a punch.

Suddenly the demon lunged forward and some of the goo landed on her face. She wiped it away in a second, long enough for the demon to attack herexcept that before it landed a punch, it fell forward from the force of a powerful blow.

Faith took advantage of this to pull out a knife and stab the demon in the chest. It fell to the ground but Faith stabbed it a couple of more timesshe wasn't falling for that horror film trick.

She looked up to thank her rescuer, only to find that he was fighting another vamp.

"Connor!" she yelled, throwing him an extra stake. He managed to catch it and bury it in the vamp's chestbut not deep enough.

"Lower! Lower!" Connor got it and pushed down. The vampire exploded. "Not bad," she said as the dust cleared.

"Yeah, the way I handled that thing you'd think I knew what I was doing," Connor said as he walked towards her.

A new voice spoke up: "Well some stuff you never forget. No matter what happens to your memory."

On Faith's left was Justine, a big demon on either side of her. Despite her companions, she still looked like the most dangerous of the group.

"Hello Connor. Shame we have to meet like this." She turned to the demons. "Take them out."

**11:33:47 /11:33:48 / 11:33:49**

Even after the majority of the demons had run towards the center, it was no picnic for those who were left. Both of the other teams had managed to take out two guards apiece, but that still left three on either side. Normally three vampires would have been no problem for a Slayer, even relatively new ones like Patrice and Kennedy. But something strangeeven by their standardswas happening. Every time the vamps ran by certain parts of the street, they would flicker in and out. Giles suspected that there was some kind of invisibility spell being used on either the vampires or the area. He was trying to chant a spell that would break all barriers between them and the warehouse.

It wasn't easy. For one thing, the magic that Ethan was using was more powerful than his. Whether it was the spell book he was fused with, or his tapping into Willow's power, the dark magic was strong. For another, some of the spells Giles was using needed to be spoken very precisely. And it's very hard to talk when you're being set upon by vampires. Especially ones that kept disappearing and reappearing.

"Kennedy your left!" Gunn shouted as a vamp suddenly appeared. Kennedy engaged it but when she knocked it backwards it disappeared again. "Damn, they've already got us outnumbered. Do they have to do this David Copperfield shit?" Gunn demanded as he tried to simultaneously guard Giles and spot vamps.

_"De noster con ri all Selwyn da"_ Giles was interrupted by the flight of an arrow. He managed to dodge it but the vampire who fired it was nearly upon him. He was about to defend himself when Gunn started battling the vamp.

"Persistent buggers," he muttered as he looked to his extreme left. In the distance he could still make out Patrice trying to fight two vampires who seemed to be trying to fight and flicker out in unison.

_Get cracking Rupert_, he thought as he began chanting again. _They can't do this forever._

The demon she was fighting was muscular and fast, so Faith needed to put in a little extra. But even as she brought it down, part of Faith's mind wasn't on the demon. It was on the bitch she was going to have to deal with afterwards.

_Time to finish this, _she thought as the demon fell to the ground. "Justine!" she yelled.

The redhead was standing to her right, looking at her extreme left not at Faith. She seemed very calm considering that her last henchman had just fallen." He always did fight well" she said softly.

"Come on, bitch, it's time for the final round!"

Now Justine was smiling. "You stupid tramp. This was never about you."

Then Faith turned and saw what Justine was looking at. And understood.

"It doesn't have to be this way." Faith hadn't even noticed Angel approach.

"You know it does." She paused. "Angelus."

**11:39:14 / 11:39:15 / 11:39:16 / 11:39:17 **

Buffy had been a little surprised that Faith had been the one to come up with a strategy for stopping the eutrasia and she had been even more surprised when the first part of it seemed to be workingthe guards on the perimeter hadn't stopped them when they had snuck around the warehouse. But that was nothing compared to her astonishment when they had reached the rear of Ethan and Harmony's defenses and found a mere three vampires guarding it. They had been difficult to kill but it still only took them five minutes to turn the vampires into food for a Dustbuster.

"I'm beginning to wonder whether we've been overestimating Harmony's planning capabilities," said Buffy as they entered the warehouse. "I expected more of a fight."

"Considering what we've already…dealt with… I think she ranks higher…than…you gave her credit…for." Robin had had the most difficulty and was breathing hard.

Xander asked: "Not to get off track, but where is Harmony?"

It was a good question. There had been no sign of her guarding the perimeter and no sign of her in the front. Buffy had assumed she was guarding the prisoners but there was no sign of her there either. Even more troubling, there was no sign of Willow, Spike or Dawn.

"Why don't I think that it's a good sign nobody's here?" continued Xander.

"She may not be here but they still are," said Robin. "Look."

Buffy looked towards the front of the warehouse. There was the edge of the pentagram. Standing on the curve of the circle was someone who had to be Ethan Rayne. There were also several figures who didn't look like they were Avon ladies.

But all of that was background to what Buffy's eyes were drawn too. There in the center of the pentagram were three of the people that she cared about the mostWillow, Dawn and Spike.

In her head Buffy knew that the reason they were in danger had to do with forces she couldn't control. But at some instinctual level she felt that her friends (she wouldn't allow herself to think of them as anything else) somehow wouldn't be in this danger if it wasn't for her being the Slayer. The pain and anguish that she had been feeling over the past seven years seemed to have a trickle-down effect on everybody she cared about. They had a lot of good times, but they were always mixed with pain.

All of which went through Buffy's mind in seconds. In the meantime she had been closing the distance to the pentagram. However she had learned for her earlier mistake and stopped a good ten feet away from its edge. "Ethan Rayne!" she yelled.

The man she had considered a mere nuisance in Sunnydale looked at her. "So you have come," he said. "It occurs to me now that I never really said a proper hello so—"

He moved faster than he ever had before. She barely managed to dodge before a blast of blue energy shot past her.

"You're getting old, Slayer. Five years ago you would never have let me get that close." As he spoke he stepped backwardsinside the pentagram.

"I may be older but I'm also smarter, and you're still a cheap hack," she spat at him. "You just have better CGI now."

He raised an eyebrow. "It's more than smoke and mirrors and you know it," he smiled. "But as much as I'd like to finish you off myself, I've got more important things to do."

By now Xander and Robin had caught up with her. "Why do you think we're here?"

"Well I expected as much which is why I'd like you to meet some more of the fine upstanding citizens that I've been associating with. Gentlemen?"

Buffy had almost forgotten the vampires that she had seen earlier. They didn't look like they would be much troublebut they would be enough to slow her down.

"You'll forgive me for not fighting with you personally but," he produced a knife, "as that great man said 'It's showtime'.

And with that he walked to Willow, pulled out a very large knife and pressed it against her forehead hard enough to draw blood.

**11:44:09/ 11:44:10 /11:44:11**

"Justine, you know this doesn't have to happen." Angel said as she lunged at him.

"Are you kidding? I'm a Slayer. You're a vampire. Isn't that the natural order of things?" Justine wasn't waiting for an answer, she dodged his swing and came at him again.

Faith wouldn't have been wild about Justine fighting Angel if she had still been normal. It didn't help that the woman with a white-hot hate for Angel was now empowered with the ability to kill him. But when Faith and Connor had approached her Angel had called them off.

"This has always been about me. One way or another, we settle this," he had said.

So Faith, much against her will, had let Angel take the fight to Justine. She did not, however, intend to just let the opportunity go.

"So you never gave me a straight answer, Justine," she yelled. "Why are you doing this? I mean, in case you missed it, a Slayer's job is the exact opposite of what you're doing now."

Justine really did have a Slayer's instinct. She took it in without breaking stride. "I've learned two things in my life that are true." she said. "One, that caring about anybody only leads to pain." As if to punctuate this, she hit Angel with two rabbit punches. "And two, that this world is built on nothing but false missions." She kicked Angel in the chest. "This world has nothing to offer me."

"But the next one will?" Angel was still only fighting defensively. "Is that what you think?"

Justine laughed. It wasn't a pleasant sound. "You know, for someone who's lived two hundred years, you" she kicked his left leg out from under him, "really are" she kicked his other leg out from under him, "thick!"

Angel got back to his feet. "Then explain it to me."

"I don't care if this ritual ends up bringing angels, devils, or the end of the whole shebang." She threw two more punches, both of which Angel dodged. "I'm sick and tired of all the misery and pain, all that other crap that we call living."

"So the rest of the world has to pay for your feelings?" Even Angel seemed surprised.

Justine advanced on Angel, "The world hasn't done shit for me." She scowled but didn't stop moving. "Why should I do shit for it?"

The depth of Justine's madness finally sunk in. "I'm sorry for you," Angel said truthfully.

Justine just smiled, "Don't be. Regardless of what happens to the world in the next fifteen minutes…" She delivered a one-two combination that knocked Angel down, "You're not going to see what it's like."

What happened next took place so quickly that Faith was barely able to see it. One second Justine was standing over Angel with a stake in her hand, the next instant she was whirling around with a human-shaped blur. By the time Faith realized that the blur was Connor, the two of them had rolled nearly five feet away from Angel.

"No!" Angel shouted as he ran to his son. Faith managed to close the distance in three seconds.

To see Justine slowly stand upand spit out a mouthful of blood.

Before Faith had seen the hole in Justine's chest, the red-haired girl fell to her knees.

Angel had run over to Connor to check on him, so Faith was the only one to hear her last words.

"H-he's a funny fellow, G-God." she said, and then she fell silent forever.

**11:51:04/ 11:51:05 / 11:54:06/ 11:54:07**

Four vampires and two nasty looking demons had been guarding Ethan and the pentagram. Buffy had hoped that they would split up in order to leave her with a chance of stopping the second raising. Unfortunately only one vampire each had gone to fight Robin and Xander and though both were strong fighters, the vampires were as difficult as the other help that Ethan and Harmony had. In other words, they had their hands full.

Which meant that Buffy was essentially cornered. She had managed to dust one of the vamps but the other one and the two demons (she was pretty sure they were Polgara demons, which had caused her some trouble in the past) were basically keeping her away from the pentagram and Ethan.

As she dodged the blades of the Polgara, she circled around and got a look inside the circle. What she saw got her attention.

Ethan Rayne was standing and chanting in its center. He had surrounded Dawn, Willow and Spike with a thin circle of blood. There were small holes on their foreheadsnot deep enough to be fatal unless Ethan decided to do more damage. On his left hand was a metal gloveprobably the same one that she thought she had seen him use during the first raising.

Just like the first raising, this one caused Willow's hair to turn black, and a blue field surrounded her. A red field also surrounding Spike and there was a yellow field surrounding Dawn. There was no light being directed anywhere else but Buffy figured it was just a matter of time.

Remembering what had happened last time, she picked up a small pebble while dodging the demons and threw it at the pentagram. Like before, it hit the edge and fell back.

"Giles! The force field!" she yelled before she was drawn back into the attack.

"Angel! We gotta move!" Faith yelled.

Angel wanted to comfort his son who was now looking at the body of Justine. Unfortunately he had no time to assuage Connor's guilt. Vampires were coming at them and something very bad was happening in the pentagram. Mourning would have to come laterif at all.

"Faith, take the vamps! Connor, we need to move now!" For a moment Angel didn't think his son would get up. He did, though. He took a deep breath and looked up.

"What the hell is going on?" he said in a daze.

Angel looked straight ahead. It looked like Willow, Spike and Dawn were glowing neon lights. And it also looked like Ethan was directing the glow upwards.

"Come on Connor."

"Lights out, asshole!" said Gunn as he managed to stake the last of the vampires he had been fighting. It was a good thing too, because every hair on his body seemed to be standing on edge from the electricity in the air. He didn't think that they had much time left.

_"De nocta selena de marcti de intervale!"_ Giles shouted.

There was a huge flash of light and for a moment Gunn thought they were too late.

Until he put his hand on the edge of the pentagram and found no resistance. The force field was down.

Ethan had more balls than Buffy had given him credit for. Though there was nothing standing between him and Buffy's forces, and three threatening people were charging him, he continued to chant and direct the energy that he was drawing from…wherever. _"Lakeol-demonstrade-norvel-thermosa-galvina"_

Buffy got to him first and knocked him down. Even that didn't shut him up until she pulled the gauntlet off his hand and kicked it away.

"Game over, Ethan. You lose!" she said as she punched him in the face.

Even though he was bleeding from the forehead and she had knocked one of his teeth out, he was still smiling. "_De morita noblinga,_ darling."

Buffy looked over at the center of the pentagram. The magic hung around the three of them like some kind of aura but it was no longer glowing. "Give it up. It's over!" she screamed.

"Not quite!" With all his strength he kicked her legs out from under her. She fell back. He got up, quickly said some magical jargon and there was another, smaller flash. When Buffy looked up again, he was gone.

Faith, Gunn and Angel had reached the center of the pentagram. "You stopped him in time, didn't you?" Faith asked.

Buffy looked around. "Well the world's still standing and I don't think anything else has…come back. We must have stopped it."

"There isn't any kind of loophole that these prophecies could sneak in, is there?" said Gunn.

"Can't be." Buffy looked around. "Right?"

The monitor over a bed which had not registered movement for months began to beep. Slowly at first. Then faster.

Fast enough for a nurse to come running in. She was surprised but began working on the patient.

Until a hand which hadn't moved in a very long time reached out, grabbed the nurse by the lapels and threw her against the wall.

Hard.

Then the patient pulled back the covers and began disconnecting the tubes and wires.

Harmony hadn't been sure about the last partmainly because the warehouse was so far away that she thought the magic wouldn't carry to the hospital room.

Then the door opened and she smiled in relief. "It worked. We brought you back." After a pause, she said: "Um, sorry but I have to ask… is it really you?"

She flinched as the woman who'd been comatose until minutes ago knocked a hole in the plaster.

"It's me," said the woman who had been Cordelia Chase. "Just me."

**11:59:57/ 11:59:58 /11:59:59/ 12:00:00**


	13. 12PM to 1PM

Chapter 13

The Following Takes Place Between 12PM and 1PM on the day of the Autumnal Equinox.

By now almost all of the good guys had assembled around the three prisoners who had been at the center of the ritual. Buffy and Kennedy were untying them while Angel and Wesley talked to them and the rest of the board. All of them had one thought on their minds.

"Do you think that we stopped the eutrasia?" asked Angel.

"We must have," said Xander, who kept looking around as if he couldn't believe his eyes. "I mean, not to state the obvious--which is something I do very well-- but we're all still alive. And of the world's still here. Right?"

Everyone was looking at Giles and Wesley, the two men who had looked the closest at the prophecies.

"I think," said Giles, "that there are three possibilities. One is that we managed to stop Ethan from completing the eutrasia and that the world is safe."

"That can't have happened," Gunn said. "We never get that lucky."

"Another possibility is that they did complete the eutrasia," continued Giles, "but that whatever they have conjured appeared somewhere else in the city."

"Could that even have been done?" Angel asked. "I mean most rituals end with the thing you want right where you are."

"That's usually true," Wesley said, "but with certain dark arts it is possible to perform a ritual from some distance away."

"That doesn't make any sense." countered Faith. "I mean, if you're going to all this trouble to raise some really funky monster why wouldn't you have it appear where you had raised it?"

"It's a fair point," Giles said. "The only thing that I can think of is that maybe they didn't want to raise Jasmine or whatever evil this is in a public place." He shook his head. "But then you'd think making a spectacle was foremost in their mind."

Something about that caused a tickle in Angel's mind, as if he had forgotten something every important. "What's the third possibility?" he asked, as he tried to concentrate on the crisis at hand.

"That we may have stopped the eutrasia but that the malefactum might still happen," said Giles.

Xander appeared confused. "But I thought that it was a package deal. This raising brings about the end of the world." He looked at Giles. "Don't tell me we didn't read the fine print on this prophecy."

Wesley sighed. "The fact of the matter is that, though these raisings and the people mentioned doubtless play an important role in the prophecy, there is a possibility that the malefactum can occur without them." He looked at the others. "The end of the world can be brought about if there are people committed enough to it."

"Once again this is information that would have been helpful at midnight!" Xander's voice got unusually loud even for him.

"Look, it's pretty simple," said Faith, "Harmony is still at large, Ethan has disappeared and there's no sign of this suit, Thompson. Given what's happened, there is a very good possibility that a lot of bad shit could still go down." She looked at the others. "The question is what do we do about it."

There were a few moments of silence. Finally Angel broke it: "We get whatever information we can find around here."

"Information?" asked Gunn dubiously. "Who do you have in mind, the man on the street?" He gestured at the streets around them.

The others looked around. All the vampires and demons were either dead or had run away. There were a fair number of people on the street, all of whom seemed very calm considering what had just happened. Giles wondered if they were enchanted or that this was just another example of the "See nothing, Hear nothing" attitude that was prevalent in LA. In any case, he didn't think they would be much help.

"I'll call Fred back at Angel-Slayer," said Wes. "See if they have any idea where the three of them might have gone."

"Plus we got that vamp tied up back at base," Faith reminded them. "Maybe he knows something."

Xander nodded. "Yeah, and while we're at it we might just want to mention that we rescued Willow and Dawn." As the others slowly realized that Angel-Slayer probably had no idea what had happened here, he whipped out his own phone and said: "I'm the one thinking clearly? Damn, we're in more trouble than we think."

Giles nodded. "Some of us should probably go back to base anyway. We're probably stretching our ranks a little thin."

"I'll go," Gunn offered. He looked to his left. "Want to ride with me, Patrice?"

The black Slayer shrugged. "What the hell. You know what they say about too many Slayers." She looked back. "You know, considering that Willow and Dawn were, uh, abducted they might want to go back too."

Angel looked to the center of the pentagram. Willow was currently locking lips with Kennedy and Buffy had her arms around Dawn. Trying very hard not to think of the third figure in the center, who had begun walking off, he said quietly: "Give them a little while longer. It's been a long day and it's not over yet." He began to walk out the pentagram.

"Angel, we're still busy here. Where are you going?" asked Xander.

"Someone else needs time to process something." He said as he walked over towards the one person who hadn't moved in the last twenty minutes even while the world was rocking.

Connor.

**12:09:33 /12:09:34 /12:09:35/ 12:09:36**

When Buffy had seen that her sister and best friend had managed to survive the horrors of captivity and being used in a dark ritual with only a few minor scratches, a huge of wave of relief almost overwhelmed her. For a couple of moments she felt she was going to start crying. Though that feeling didn't last, it pretty much summed up how exhausting the day was. So she had given herself a few seconds to revel in the rescue of her friends and gave Willow and Kennedy a chance to get emotional. Now, however, the time for her to lead had come. But first--

"Dawnie, what the hell were you thinking when you let Justine take you?" she asked bluntly.

Her sister rolled her eyes as if she'd been expecting this. "I was thinking that we were running out of time to stop this big nasty and that this might be our only chance to find out what it is that's going to cause the end of the world."

"Oh good, so lets just ignore the fact that you delivered the last piece of the ritual right to Ethan and Harmony's hands."

Dawn got an indignant look on her face. "Like you've never risked the lives of a lot of people in order to save the world."

Not wanting to concede that that was a valid argument, Buffy continued: "I'm a Slayer. I'm allowed to make those kinds of judgments."

"Well in case you've forgotten, I am also part Slayer. Even if I wasn't, I'm still part of this team which gives me the same responsibilities as everybody else. And if the situations were reversed you would have done the exact same thing and you know it." Before Buffy could interject, she added: "Besides, people that I knew were going to die. They would have killed Kennedy and Cho-San and everyone else in the building to get to me."

Buffy could have argued more but she knew that, at the most basic level, Dawn was right. There was no point in dragging out the conversation. "Did you get any more intelligence from them?" she asked instead.

Dawn took a deep breath. "Whatever it is, this maleforma or whatever the hell they're working on, they've been very quiet about it."

Buffy was a little surprised by that. "But one of the heavies is, I can't believe I'm saying this, Harmony. "

"I know."

"This is a girl who went to Echo Park to hear herself talk."

"Well, either she learned restraint at Villainy School, or she's been hanging around smarter vampires cause she didn't give word one about whatever the hell is going on." Dawn sounded as surprised as Buffy was. "The only thing that we know for sure is that they planned to resurrect Jasmine for this deal."

"We already figured out that much," said Buffy. "Do you have any idea where Harmony is?"

Dawn shook her head. "Right before the big raising began, she and a bunch of vamps disappeared. She said she has some kind of appointment to keep. Maybe she's going wherever Jasmine is, but she didn't give any clue where that could be."

Buffy gave a sigh. "So basically they've performed a ritual to raise someone but we don't know who. They've gone some place to meet who they raised but we don't know where. And there's some big darkness coming because of this but we don't know what." She rubbed her eyes. "Is there anything we have learned?'

"Ethan Rayne was a Watcher," Dawn told her. When Buffy looked at her strangely she added: "You're the one who asked what we know now that we didn't know before."

Buffy put her hands in her hair. "All the most significant information gathering tools and supernatural intelligence, and we're only marginally better off than we had been if we were working out of the Magic Box."

"No we're not."

Buffy looked at Kennedy in surprise. The young Slayer had stopped embracing Willow and was facing them, though she still held the witch's hand. "We had next to nothing on the First and we managed to beat it. We only learned about this thing twelve hours ago and we almost got it. We've got the resources. We can do this."

"You're awfully confident considering what might have happened," said Dawn.

"I know this team. I know that when we're on all cylinders we are as powerful as any demon or vampire or evil entity." Kennedy looked around at all of them. "We're better than them. It's time we showed it."

Trying to draw on whatever optimism Kennedy was channeling, Buffy turned back to Dawn. "All right, then I think we better regroup. Willow, Dawn, I think the two of you need to get back to base." Before they could protest she added: "You've both been used in a big ritual and they've been draining magic out of Will for most of the day. The two of you need to rest and recharge before you try anything else."

"If you're so worried why not just send us home?" Willow asked.

"Because I know both of you and neither of you would go," Buffy said with a small smile. "Besides I think that there's a lot of good that the two of you can still do even if it's at a computer."

"I think I should go back and help Will and Dawn debrief," Kennedy said.

"You'd better not mean what I think you mean by that," said Buffy, a little shocked by how bold Kennedy was becoming.

"I meant business Buffy. This is no time to play games."

The smile on Buffy's face disappeared. "You're right."

"What about you

"Not yet. First I need to have the conversation I never thought I'd get to have."

And Buffy began walking in the direction that Spike had gone.

**12:20:04/12:20:05/12:20:06/12:20:07**

Angel knew that he had to approach Connor carefully, given what had happened. He now had to deal with killing someone, even if it had been an accident. The Connor that Angel had known might have been able to shrug off Justine's death without much thought, but he wasn't sure that this was the Connor he had known.

He also knew that _he _was in a fragile state. Like almost everything else that had happened that day, Angel had managed to put aside his shock and anger that his son, against everything Wolfram & Hart had promised, was being dragged into his life and his problems again. It had been easy to ignore with a deadline hanging over his head. Now he had free time and everything that had happened -- the appearance of Ethan Rayne, the resurrection of Spike, and so on -- was staring to hit him.

Which was why he had walked over to Connor, who had been standing by Justine's body ever since she had died. Then something that he had not expected happened. He didn't know what to say. He knew he should be able to talk to Connor, but how do you talk to someone whose memory of his life you erased? Angel had confronted harder obstacles before but this… he wasn't sure he was prepared for this.

So he stood there. He might have done that for a while if Connor hadn't made the first move.

"How did she know me?" he asked.

That was an explanation Angel would have liked to avoid. He tried to keep it simple. "She was a friend of the man who raised you in--" he fumbled mentally "--the other dimension." Then to be complete: "When you came back, she helped you imprison me in a water-tight box and dropped me in the Pacific ."

Connor took this in. "I…I did that?" he said. Angel nodded. An abashed look appeared on Connor's face. "My God. I'm so sorry. How…how long were you stuck there?"

"Three months, more or less." Angel tried to be nonchalant about it but Connor seemed appalled at what he had done. "It's okay. Believe it or not, it wasn't the worst summer I've ever had."

Connor took that in. "So that's why she wanted to kill you so badly."

Angel saw his opening. "Look, Connor, I know that you must be a lot of things about…what happened."

"You mean that." Connor swallowed deeply. "I killed this girl." He bent over her body. "How old was she?"

Angel thought for a second. "Twenty, twenty-one. I'm not sure."

"She's not much older than me." Connor finally got to his feet. "She should have had her whole life ahead of her. And this--"

"Connor. You have to understand. You're probably feeling a lot of things right now. Taking a life, it brings about all sorts of emotions. They can be overwhelming."

"They're not," Connor said absently.

That was mildly surprising. "What?'

"Don't get me wrong, I feel all sorts of things-- guilty, ashamed, angry-- and I'm sorry she's dead but I can handle it. I feel bad but I think I can live with it." He began walking towards Angel. "You want to know what bothers me the most?"

"What?"

"No one's going to miss her." He stopped walking. "I mean I only know what Buffy told me about her, but she didn't have any family or any friends. I don't even know what's going to happen to her body."

Angel hadn't thought about that. And now that he was, it bothered him. Justine Cooper had done everything in her power to end his existence but it seemed wrong that she was probably going to be buried in Potter's Field among the homeless and drug addicts.

"I mean it's not like we're going to call the police or anything, right?" Connor continued.

That struck a nerve in Angel. "Why wouldn't we?"

"Because there's no way we can explain how she died. I mean if I went to the cops and told them about this there's no explanation, not even the truth, that wouldn't get everybody in a lot of trouble." Connor hung his head. "And I don't want that to happen."

Connor's attitude bothered Angel but it took him a few seconds to figure out why. It was the attitude that almost everybody in Angel-Slayer would take. Under normal circumstances he wouldn't have done something to make sure Justine didn't end up alone. But, as everyone kept reminding him, these weren't normal circumstances. Still--

"Hold on a second." He took out his cell phone and punched in a number. As was the case with all Wolfram & Hart services, they promptly responded.

"Final Services," said a business-like voice on the other end.

Angel had never wanted to deal with this part of the business. He found it hypocritical beyond belief that a place that cared so little for its employees' souls would take such good care of their physical bodies. However…

"This is Angel," he said unhappily. "I have a dead woman in the Little Tokyo area of Chinatown. I need her to be taken care of." Then realizing what he just said, he quickly added: "Compassionately."

"Any specific instructions?" the voice asked blandly. Angel wanted to hit the owner anyway. "Her name is Justine Cooper." He thought for a second. "Just make sure that her body is buried next to her sister's."

"We'll be there in ten minutes." They hung up first.

Angel suddenly felt unclean. "Connor, I've made sure that she'll be taken care of. We should probably go."

Connor looked at him. "The end of the world waits for no man."

"I know that you're upset about this, but we've done everything we can for her." Angel hated what he was saying, especially because it was true.

"No, there is one thing that we can do." Connor walked back to Justine's body and bent down. He hesitated for a second, then closed her eyes. "I hope you find peace, Justine." He stayed there for a few seconds, then got to his feet. "Now we can go."

And Angel and Connor walked towards the others without ever looking back.

**12:31:18/12:31:19/12:31:20/12:31:21**

After giving Spike the cold shoulder for the past twenty minutes Buffy supposed it made sense that Spike would try to ignore her.

Not that the vampire was being nasty about it. Spike had spent the last six hours being bound and gagged, and before that he had been who knew where for four months of her time and God knows how long it had been for him. It made sense that he had spent some time walking around, trying to reorient himself with the world.

Finally when Spike started walking down the street intently, Buffy had to speak: "Did you drop something?" It was inane, but Buffy wasn't sure how to begin.

Spike didn't look up. "I'm out of smokes."

"You really think a cigarette's a good idea about now?" God, she sounded like her mother.

"I'm feeling a bit peckish and smoking always takes a bit of the edge off," he said.

It wasn't a road she was wild about going down. "Well, Spike, and I must be channeling June Cleaver because we can find you something to eat."

Spike finally lifted his head. "Yes, I suppose we could always go to the headquarters of Murder Inc. I'm sure they keep pints of the strong stuff for Angel."

It was not a promising avenue for discussion but Buffy knew she had to go down it anyway. "So I guess Willow and Dawn told you-- "

"-- that after seven years of fighting the forces of darkness, you decided to take their executive offices." Spike was staring daggers at her. "Yes, they told me."

Buffy forgot for a moment what had happened to Spike. "First of all, in case you didn't know, my home and everything I owned, as well as everywhere I worked, is gone, so I didn't have a lot of options. Second, I didn't force anybody to take this job. I presented a case, they agreed with it."

"And I'm sure that your decision had nothing to do with the fact that Captain Hairdo had just taken a parking space at Evil Law." Spike sounded bitter and hurt.

Without thinking, she spat out: "You were gone Spike. Gone forever. Was I supposed to be in mourning for-- "

Spike seemed to become paler which, when Buffy thought about it, seemed impossible.

"Oh God, Spike I'm sorry."

"It's all right," he said softly.

"No it isn't."

"No. No, it's not." he admitted. "There's no way a bloke just gets over being where I was." He hesitated. "You want to know something frightening? I can barely remember the place. I mean I know that it was horrible but I can't remember why. It's like a Swiss cheese effect."

Buffy took that in. "Swiss cheese?" she finally asked. "What does that mean?'

Spike thought for a second and slapped his forehead. "Bloody Andrew! Six months of being with him and that's what sticks? Quantum-frigging-Leap?" He put his head in his hands. "My memory's blanks on almost everything but I can remember Scott Bakula? Oh man."

Buffy thought over the last part of his statement. "You can't remember where you were?" When Spike nodded, she said: "Isn't that a good thing?"

Spike thought it over for several seconds . "I suppose it is. But--maybe it's my goddamn soul-- but I feel that I should remember the pain. It seems wrong not to." Spike shook his head. "Christ I sound like him, don't I?"

It wasn't a conversation Buffy wanted to have, especially not now. So she decided to impart some of her own wisdom. "Spike, trust me on this. After you get resurrected it doesn't do much good to remember where you might have been." She looked Spike in the eye. "No matter where you went."

Spike considered. "Yeah. I guess so." He stuck his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "The rest of you, you made it."

Buffy must have looked confused because he continued: "Faith, Xander, Giles…"

"Well we lost four Slayers and Anya was killed," Buffy said. "But yeah, we almost all made it." She looked at him. "Thank you for that."

"I'd do it again, Buffy." A bit of the old Spike surfaced. "Course, I thought that was going to be my stunning exit. Now I'm back in the game again."

"Guess so."

"Why? What did they bring me back for?"

Buffy had been afraid of this. "So Harmony and Ethan didn't tell you what they were raising."

Spike shook his head. "When the hell did Harmony grow a pair? She never had any interest in this end-of-the world crap."

Buffy would have snapped off some kind of petty remark except she didn't know what had gotten into Harmony either. "I know. She never struck me as the Apocalypse bringing type."

"But it's more than that. You know what kind of girl she was. How the hell could she get a hundred vampires to follow her? She couldn't handle five before." Spike looked at the pentagram. "And her attitude. She's become secretive. Old Harm would have told us everything she was planning in five minutes. "

"So she didn't give anything away?"

"Nix. She mumbled some junk about how the heavens would scream and the earth would quake. But, unless I was more out of it than I thought, that didn't happen when they did…whatever."

"No. No it didn't," Buffy said reflectively. "Yet. But maybe what you brought back will."

Spike was puzzled. "You mean that Jasmine bird? But if they really did it-- "

"-- where the hell is she?" Spike winced at Buffy's remark. "Sorry. Poor choice of words. Still she's got to be here somewhere." Buffy thought for a second. A particularly sick idea had just occurred to her. "Spike, you remember two years ago when you were following me around and I ask you how you kept doing it and you said you could smell me."

"N-no" said Spike. "But it does sound like something I'd say."

Buffy looked at him. "Can vampires follow a person's scent?"

A look was coming over his face. "Sometimes. If we know them well enough."

"And you knew…" Buffy's voice involuntary went up as she said 'knew' "…Harmony very well. Do you think you can find her scent?"

"Scent. I'm not a bloodhound-- Well I am, but it's not that easy."

"Why not?"

"Because this is LA. There are thousands of people's scents everywhere."

Buffy kept looking at him.

"And what if she went in a car?"

Buffy stayed silent.

"I'm being realistic here." Pause. "Don't take that attitude." Another pause. Spike threw up his hands. "Give me a minute, I'll see if I can sniff her out. " He used air quotes for the last three words.

Buffy turned around. As she started to walk away Spike said: "You could be a little nicer to me. I did just come back from hell." She kept walking but she still heard his last statement: "Sodding women."

**12:43:22/12:43:23/12:43:24/12:43:25**

Gunn made the call to Fred and the others at Angel-Slayer about what had happened over the past two hours. It had taken a while because Fred had been extremely annoyed that they had been out of contact for the last hour and a half and had launched into a rambling diatribe about keeping the lines of communication open. (Of course, considering what the others had been doing, calling them and updating them on their progress would have been a bad idea but it wasn't until Fred had finished speaking that she had realized that.)

Fred was as happy as the others that Willow and Dawn were still alive. It was somewhat tempered by the bad guys seeming to have gotten clean away. Furthermore, their efforts to track down Harmony had hit a huge road block. Their surveillance equipment couldn't locate Harmony or any of her vampires, and they had no idea where else to look. And, completing the hat trick, they didn't have a clue where whatever the villains had raised was. There hadn't been any reports of any new magic reports.

With no other leads to follow Fred had taken the one course of action she had left --interrogating the vampire Wesley and Angel. Given the little that Roderick seemed to know, it was a pretty thin straw to grasp but they were just about out of options.

So she had taken slightly different version of the drugs she had tried on Justine six hours earlier, grabbed Cho-San and Ida (neither of whom mentioned what had happened to Regina the last time) returned to the room he was being kept him in and began to work.

Unfortunately Roderick didn't seem to know much more about the master plan beyond it involving bringing back Jasmine. And it took Fred ten minutes to determine that was all he knew. Nevertheless she kept pressing.

"Did Harmony and Ethan give you any indication where they were going to need you after the raising?" she asked.

"For the last time, no. Once the raising was finished they said that they'd call us with instructions." Roderick gasped. "Could you loosen the ropes a little?"

"Why? Last I checked you didn't need to breathe." Fred picked up another vial and prepared to inject it

"Shit, I've told you all I know about this raising!" he said in a panicky voice.

Fred was pretty sure that he was telling the truth. She decided to try another area of inquiry. "This guy Thompson, the guy who hired you. Was he just the money or did he have some other part in the plan?"

That seemed to have struck a chord. Roderick thought for a second. "He was doing more than that, yeah."

"Such as?"

"He said that it was very important that, once Jasmine came back, we take her somewhere on the very outskirts of LA."

"Where?"

Roderick looked at her. "He didn't give us an address." Fred made a threatening motion. "All I know is that it was between the mountains and the Pacific," he said quickly.

Fred considered. It sounded vague enough to be legitimate but she didn't think that they had the manpower to scour the area around the ocean. She was about to press him harder when her cell phone rang. She told Cho-san to move closer to Roderick then she answered her phone. "What is it?" she said abruptly.

"Hey Fred it's me."

She relaxed a little. "What is it Andrew?"

"I just thought that you should know that Gunn's back in the building and he's got Dawn and Willow with him. They're going to be getting back to work as soon as they can, but they needed a few minutes to recharge."

"Well, that's nice and I'm glad that they're back, but was that the only reason you called?" Fred asked.

"No. It took some doing, but I was finally able to tap into Thompson's email account at Wolfram & Hart."

Fred was surprised. "You finally managed to break down the firewall?" There had been an additional layer of security along with the usual Wolfram & Hart codes.

"Yeah. Unfortunately most of the emails he wrote had some kind of auto-delete method so it hasn't been easy to get information."

"Damn it. Did you find anything we can use?"

"There was one email that didn't make a lot of sense. It seemed to have some kind of listing for a convalescent home outside the Elysian Park area. Now I know they work in some strange places, but a retirement home?"

Fred barely heard him. She had gone cold the moment Andrew said 'convalescent home.' She realized that she had been missing the forest for the trees. That they had forgotten the obvious. "Andrew, get as many people as you can together and get a hold of Angel and Buffy. They have to get ready to move now. "

"You know where Jasmine is?" he said.

"No, I know where she was." said Fred grimly. "She never left the place we put her."

**12:51:29/12:51:30/12:51:31/12:51:32**

Gunn, Kennedy and Patrice had gone back with Dawn and Willow to home base, Spike was off with Buffy trying to pick up Harmony's scent. If Faith had understood Buffy correctly she didn't want to think of what she might have meant. Wesley, Xander and Giles had gone back to the warehouse to see if the bad guys had left some kind of clue as to what was going to happen next. Angel and Connor were trying to track down any stray vampires. Before they had left, Angel had asked Faith and Robin if they would stay around the body of Justine and wait for the funeral workers to come and take it away.

That didn't bother Faith as much as she would have thought that it would-- more than anyone else she felt a fallen Slayer deserved to be treated like a person no matter which side she fought on. What did bother her was why Robin had agreed to stay behind. She knew how the ex-principal didn't like being handed soft work. More than that, on some gut level, she felt that Robin had been acting very strange for the last couple of hours.

So, while the mortuary workers began handling Justine's body she decided to see if she could find out what was wrong with a man she had become very close to over the past few months.

"How its hanging?" she started off with as she walked over to him.

"Not that bad." Genial enough statement but Robin wouldn't look her in the eye.

Here goes, she thought. "Well, it's just that you seemed to have a bit of trouble with that last group of beasties," she said watching him carefully.

"Well, you know these undead have been a little tougher than the average vamp." The remark was amusing but it didn't seem to gel with what she saw on Robin's face.

"I've also noticed that, even though it's not that hot, you're sweating like a pig. And you've been sitting down a lot."

"Faith, I've just been through a rather grueling fight. I'm entitled to--"

The sentence was never finished. Suddenly Robin began to grimace and writhe as if he'd been hit in the chest. The spasm or whatever the hell it was lasted only a few seconds but it seemed endless to Faith as she watched him. She sat down next to him and held him until the trembling passed. When it had, she looked him in the eye and asked: "What's wrong Robin? The truth."

Robin took a few more seconds to gather himself. Finally he turned to Faith and said, "Earlier today, Giles and I found a box that we thought held the Band of Tarquin." He swallowed. "Someone--I'll bet it was that bastard Rayne-- designed the box so that whoever opened it would get covered with some kind of powder."

"What kind of powder?" Faith was getting a sinking feeling.

"Some kind of poison. I--inhaled a lot of it." Robin's voice was cracking.

"How much?"

Robin gathered himself. "A fatal dose."

Faith felt like someone had reached inside her chest and squeezed. She knew enough about poisons to understand the how's and why's of this being possible. "How long do you—" For some reason she couldn't finish the sentence.

Robin understood. "They couldn't say for certain. But given how I'm feeling, the odds are that today's sunset will be the last I ever see, one way or the other."

All kinds of feelings ran through Faith. She seized on the strongest one: stubborn denial. "I'm…I'm taking you to the hospital. Right now."

"Faith--" Robin started.

"You're going to see a real doctor and you're going to get a second opinion." She pulled on his arm.

"They checked me over thoroughly at the clinic."

"Then you're going to get a third, fourth and fifteenth if we have to," she said doggedly.

"They were pretty sure." Robin was trying to be gentle.

"Four years ago I was in a coma with no chance of ever waking up!" Faith said. "The experts can be wrong and you know it!"

"Faith, in case you didn't notice we're in the middle of a crisis here—"

"We're always in a crisis!" Faith shouted. "It's our fucking way of life! The world is always ending. It was in trouble six months ago, it will be six months from now!" For the first time in a long time Faith was losing a battle with her emotions and she didn't care. "Now we always put saving the many over ourselves and maybe we're right to do that but damn it-- " A small tear fell down her cheek. Neither she nor Robin noticed it. "-- our lives should matter."

Robin looked stunned. Faith knew that part of it was the pain but she knew some wasn't. It took several seconds for him to look at her. "You really think that my life should matter more than those of everyone else in LA?"

"Don't get into this 'the needs of the many outweigh those of the few' bullshit." Faith said.

Despite the seriousness of the situation Robin found himself smiling. "I think you've been spending too much time with Andrew."

"Bullshit is bullshit, especially if it's from Star Trek," said Faith. "Some people do have to matter more than others. Sometimes you have to be selfish."

Faith wasn't sure if what she was saying was registering which made her doubly pissed when Wesley ran up to them. "This is a real crappy time to interrupt."

"This can't wait," he said in the tone that Faith knew meant darkness was ahead.

"What is it?" Robin asked, getting to his feet.

"We're pretty sure how they brought Jasmine back."

Despite her concerns Faith knew she had to hear this. "What have they done?"

"Cordelia." There was real sorrow in his voice. "They're using Cordelia."

**12:59:57/12:59:58/12:59:59/1:00:00**


	14. 1PM to 2PM

Chapter 14

The Following Takes Place Between 1pm and 2pm on the day of the Autumnal Equinox.

Though Giles hadn't heard Buffy's remarks about the perks of Wolfram & Hart leaving them only marginally better off, he was beginning to feel the same way. Even though having this morally ambiguous organization at their beck and call had helped immeasurably today, he was now thinking if, in their ultra-organized approach to every detail, they had forgotten to deal with the most obvious methods and had missed things they needed to know. They had gotten involved in a futile (and, in Robin's case, fatal) search for the artifacts. They had divided their number so much that they had been vulnerable to attack. And they had gotten so wrapped up in finding out who was behind the raisings that they hadn't managed to stop either of them. Now they had gotten so locked on finding Jasmine they had missed the obvious answer as to where she might be. If they had still been at the Sunnydale-level they might have been excusable lapses. For people who supposedly had the best of everything, it was nearly suicidal.

"How the hell do we keep fucking up like this?" asked Angel angrily as he and Connor walked into the warehouse where Giles and Xander had been looking for a lead. "The reason we took this deal was so that we could be on top of the situation. How come we keep blowing it?"

_I'm thinking like Angel now_, thought Giles. _We're neck deep_ _in it, if there was any doubt. _Aloud he said: "I think our problems with the law firm are secondary to stopping the apocalypse."

"Angel we couldn't have foreseen this," Wesley said, few feet behind him with Faith and Robin in tow. "We all thought that after Jasmine left Cordelia's body that there would be no way for her to return. There was no way for us to know—"

"There was no way to know that Spike could be brought back from hell," Robin said. "And there was no way to know that Jasmine could be brought back at all." He grimaced for a moment. "We're supposed to specialize in the unknown. We haven't done it."

"Now is not the time argue over who lost China." Angel was speaking tensely but the anger was gone. "We have a job to do, let's do it." He turned to his left. "Wesley what do we know about -- Cordelia?" Angel's hesitation was brief but everyone noticed it.

"According to Fred, Harmony and a small squad of vamps walked out of Cordelia's recuperative center with her less than an hour ago," Wesley said.

"How sure are we that Cordelia got out of her bed on her own?" asked Giles.

"We're not."

Angel looked more pissed. "There were three people from our offices watching that home. How is it that they-- "

"They're all dead." Wesley spoke so curtly that it took a moment for it to register. "So are a receptionist and two nurses. "

"Harmony could have done that," Robin said.

"One of them was standing just outside Cordy's bedroom. She must have done it"

"You don't know that:"

Everyone turned left, towards Xander. He had been very quiet ever since Giles had told him that Cordelia might be awake. Part of Xander's quiet had been brought on by guilt. He had been one of the people who decided to move Cordy from her room in the building to the place near Elysian Park. But most of it had to do with a far more primal reason. A reason that was shared by at least one other in their party.

"Xander." said Angel. "I know what you're feeling right now. I know it's hard to take in—"

Xander's face grew darker. "I don't needheartfelt advicefrom someone whose own heart isn't beating." He turned back to Wesley. "We don't know anything for certain. For all we know maybe Cordy is the one who's awake. I wouldn't put it past Harmony to go to all this trouble just to bring her bestest best friend back."

"That's not happening."

Now everyone turned to the right. Faith had been quiet herself and Giles, feeling guilty because he had almost forgotten about Robin's fate during the upheaval of the last few hours, thought that he knew the reason for that too.

"We have to face some brutal facts today, Xan," Faith went on. "And we all know that Jasmine's back and Cordelia's got her." She was sounding pretty grim herself. "If you can't deal with it, then you're going to have to go home," she said looking right at Xander, " 'cause we all have to bring our A-game today. No matter what."

Xander considered. Then he walked towards Faith. "Well I'm glad to see that you've got that kind of group think that comes to the Army. But not all of us were built with Slayer bravado. Some of us have feelings."

"That's absolutely not what I meant."

"Could've fooled me." He pushed Faith who fell back more from surprise than Xander's strength. "If I ever develop an attitude like yours, I hope I end up taking a seven month siesta from the world too."

And he stormed off. Faith started after him.

"Faith--" Wesley began.

"I need to talk to him. The rest of you need to get to work figuring out how we're gonna find Cordelia and Harmony." She left before anyone could stop her.

Angel recovered first. "What do we do now ?"

**1:10:33/1:10:34/1:10:35/1:10:36**

There were a lot of things happening that day that were stretching even Buffy's normally high threshold for finding unbelievable things today. Harmony actually being a capable villain. Ethan Rayne becoming the equivalent of Voldemort. Willow being used as a vessel for powerful magic against her will. Now, however, she was dealing with something she hadn't thought possible: Spike walking down the street in broad daylight -- without a Gem of Amara -- supposedly tracking Harmony by smell alone. Yet even that wasn't the freaky part. The freaky part was that something that something Spike had told her during what amounted to pillow talk was actually true.

"How the hell are you doing this so easily?" she asked Spike as he stood at the intersection of two roads.

Spike didn't turn around but his voice was filled with disdain. "First of all luv, this is not easy. It isn't just Harmony that's giving off a fragrant aroma, it's every bloody person who has walked down the street over the last several hours. It takes a bit of work to pick one in particular out, and that's without counting all the thousands of normal smells that you find in the largest city in the country." Now he turned and gave her a hard stare. "I'm guessing Angelfish didn't let you in on that particular tidbit."

Buffy didn't have time to deal with this so she ignored it. "But you can find Harmony's."

Spike had been standing on the north branch of the intersection now he turned around to the south branch. As he did, he said without looking at her, "I spent a rather considerable part of two years around that particular bint. It would be pretty hard to forget that."

Spike spoke without any tone at all when he said it, nevertheless it stung. Again she decided to set it aside. "Can you tell what direction she went?"

Now Spike turned around, an exasperated look on his face. "What did I just get through telling you?" he asked, aggravated.

"Okay, okay, you're not Toucan Sam. I get it," she said backing off.

He turned back around. He stood there for nearly half a minute before turning back to the north branch and saying: "I'm pretty sure she went this way."

Buffy turned around herself. "Then let's go before the trail gets cold."

The two of them began walking. Spike was quiet for a few seconds before saying: "I'll tell you what I find interesting."

Buffy was quiet before going: "All right. What?"

"I find it odd that with all the evil—sorry, marvelous technology that you must have at your disposal—satellite cameras, computer trackers or whatever James Bond stuff they're using these days—you would leave your friends and colleagues in order to rely on my small, broken, just-spent-the-last-few-months-sniffing-brimstone nose to track down Harmony." Spike still wasn't looking at her but she knew him well enough to detect the air of smugness in his voice. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you came up with this idea just to spend time with me."

Buffy managed to avoid blushing but it was a near thing. "You're right Spike," she said firmly, "you don't know me. Before I left I had a talk with Giles and Willow about the best possible way to track down the bad guys. We're going to be using the most sophisticated methods to track down Ethan and Harmony. But the fact is, after some of the crap that's happened today, I don't really trust the stuff our new friends got us. So Giles and Willow decided that while they try the high grade stuff, we'd try an old school approach. Now Harmony's the easiest one to find and you are the most capable one to find her. That's the only reason that we are doing this."

She delivered her spiel in a tone that she hoped sounded calm and self-assured. Apparently it wasn't because Spike gave a small laugh and said: "That's your story and you're sticking with it. Fine. Whatever."

It was getting rather repetitive. "Christ, Spike, you've only been around me an hour and already you've brought us back to our holding pattern. What the—"

"Hold it." Abruptly Spike had become all business. "Her smell's getting stronger." He began moving faster. Buffy had to move quickly to keep pace until he stopped suddenly.

Buffy soon saw why. Less than fifty feet ahead of them was a building where several uniforms were milling around in front—as well as a couple of vans with 'Morgue' on their sides.

"Well this has the sign of Harmony on it," Buffy said softly.

"Yeah, but I don't know why she'd tear up an old folks home," Spike replied just as softly. "I mean, she never struck me as that— Buffy?"

Buffy was very quiet. Spike was about to nudge her when she finally spoke. " She was here to visit an old friend.."

"Excuse me?"

Buffy gathered herself. "This is a Wolfram & Hart establishment," she exhaled. "We were using it to care for Cordelia."

**1:19:09/1:19:10/1:19:11**

"Xander!"

Again she got no response. Faith had spotted Xander three minutes ago and had yelled at him but the young mans only response was to move faster and ignore her. If she had been running after him she would have caught up to him by now, instead she was keeping her distance because she knew Xander was in a particularly fragile state. That wasn't a new problem—so was she.

"If I'd known you had this much endurance I would have come back for seconds," she said. That sounded enough like her normal tone to get him to stop and turn around.

There was a smile on his face but it seemed more false than not. "You're the one who can't catch me? If I didn't know better I would say that you were losing it."

The remark, while relatively innocent, hit Faith in a place that she wouldn't have thought it would. She tried to wear the same poker face she used on evil doers and companions alike but some of her tension must have shone through because Xander said: "If I didn't know better I'd say something was bothering you."

"Turns out you know me a lot better than you think," she said sadly.

"What's wrong?" Xander said walking back to her.

Faith put her hands on her face. "I'll tell you, but right now we're dealing with your problem."

"Which is?" Xander said, giving away nothing.

"First you walk back with me." When Xander hesitated she said: "Please."

It may have been the first time since she had become a Slayer that she had said that word to anyone. And it sold Xander because he walked back to her and said : "Let's go."

As they walked Faith starting talking. "I know how upset you are about what's happened to Cordelia."

Xander glanced at her. "What do you mean by that?"

Faith shrugged. "Hell if I know. I don't know what Cordy's role is in whatever's going to happen but I don't think there's any way that she comes out of this all right."

Xander looked straight ahead. "I don't think she will either," he finally admitted. "I think that no matter what has happened to her, she's not going to make it through the day."

"I'm sorry, Xander."

He gave her a look.

"I mean it. It's just wrong what happened to Cordy. Sometimes I think whoever's behind this is dealing from the bottom of the deck."

"I know what will probably have to be done. I just wish I didn't have to see it."

"You don't."

Xander stopped walking.

"I'm serious. There's no reason that you should have to come for that part."

"You want me to go back to base and let—"

"No. That's why I wanted to talk to you."

"What do you want, Faith?" Xander sounded a little curt.

"I need someone to do something and I didn't know who else to ask." She took a deep breath. "Earlier today Robin inhaled some kind of poison. Some Watcher looked at him and said—that it was enough to kill him."

A look of genuine shock appeared on Xander's face. "But he's still—"

"--here. I know. What's with you men and playing through pain?" Faith was stunned to find that she was on the verge of crying again. "He—he needs to get to a hospital and he won't go. And I'm the damn Slayer so I can't take him."

"How long does he have?" Xander asked gently.

She swallowed. "Could be hours. Everyone else won't hear anything that isn't about stopping the bad guys. You're the only other person who's thinking emotionally."

Xander kept walking for a few more seconds. "What makes you think he'll listen to me?"

"He won't," she said honestly. "Trick him if you have to. Just get him there."

Xander looked at Faith. "Do you love him?"

"I still don't know," Faith said truthfully. "But if there's any way to save him, I want to do it. He means a lot to me. Maybe as much as Cordelia means to you."

Xander pondered her words for a long twenty seconds. "Okay. I'll do what I have to."

"Thank you, Xander. I mean it," she said grateful.

As they walked the remaining blocks Faith realized that was probably the first time she'd used that phrase too.

**1:27:59/128:00/1:28:01/1:28:02**

Considering that, over the last ten hours, she had been trussed up like a turkey and been used twice as a vessel of energy to help bring about not one but two powerful magical events, Willow wasn't feeling that bad. She was a little worn out, of course, and she didn't think she was going to be able to tap into her powers for any major spells for a while, but otherwise she felt fine.

So when Andrew called the office where she and Kennedy had been resting for the last half hour and said that he could really use her help she told him all right.

Kennedy, however, didn't seem to have as much confidence. "Are you sure that you're up to this?" she asked as they walked to the tech room.

"I'm not going to run the four-minute mile, Kennedy. I'm just helping Andrew go over some satellite photos," Willow said calmly. "This is the kind of thing that I could do in my sleep even before I became Miss Wizard."

"I know it's just, and maybe I'm channeling my mom…I don't know but you've just been through a rather big deal," Kennedy said. "I think everyone would understand if you decided to take it easy for a while."

Willow stopped walking and raised her eyebrows skeptically. "You sure that you don't have any personal reasons for asking?"

Kennedy had the grace to look away.

"Look," she said more seriously." You and I know that we're in the middle of a hurricane here. I don't know what Ethan and Harmony are planning now that they've raised Jasmine, but they didn't bring her back to have tea." Willow started walking again.

"Will, this isn't your responsibility—" Kennedy started.

"Yes it is." Willow kept moving but her voice went up a notch. "I may not have directly caused these raisings but I didn't stop them either. Darn right its my responsibility." She lowered her voice. "And even it wasn't, this is still my job. Yours too."

They were outside the tech room.

Kennedy clearly didn't like it, but she knew Willow was right. "Do you need help?" she asked.

Willow put her hand on Kennedy's shoulder. "Go the center of operations. Find out who else needs assistance." Willow smiled. "I think there are pretty good odds someone will."

"One more thing." Before Willow could ask what, Kennedy had spun her around, pulled her to one side and laid an Adrian Brody kiss on her. Then nearly as quickly Kennedy released her.

"For good luck." she said with a smile.

Feeling a little dazed Willow managed an: "Uh, yeah." before she fumbled for the door knob and went inside.

Andrew was looking at a monitor. "It's about time you--" He looked up at Willow. "You sure you're all right?"

Willow realized that her face was a little red. "I'm fine."

Now Andrew had a small smile on his face. "And Kennedy? How's she doing?" he said with a touch of lechery in his voice.

Suddenly Willow was all business. "What did you call me for?"

Andrew sobered up. "All right, you know that Ethan and Harmony were raising Jasmine?"

"I figured that out," she said with a slight bit of irony.

"Did you know that they raised her in Cordelia's body?"

Willow was surprised—but not as much as she thought she would be. "No, but in a sick way that makes sense." She then made the logical leap. "They took her from the place near Elysian Park?"

Now Andrew looked a little annoyed. "Yes, and may I just say that you could have kept me in the loop on these kinds of things? I mean if I'd known that she was there, I might have been able to move a little faster with tracking her down."

"Why did you ask for me Andrew?"

Andrew shook off his mood. "Since the convalescent home is a Wolfram & Hart property it has extensive security cameras. Unfortunately, they also have a complicated coding system that makes it hard to hack. I was hoping that you could maybe…"

"Use my superior computer skills to bail your ass out of trouble?" Willow said sweetly.

"That's not quite how I'd put it but—"

"Step aside kid, and let a pro show you how it's done."

Willow walked to the keyboard.

"You're in a good mood considering what's going on." Andrew sounded a little perplexed.

"What can I say," said Willow as she began typing, "suddenly I feel…inspired."

**1:35:27/1:35:28/1:35:29**

Having been to a hell dimension or two in his long life, as well as specializing in suffering for more than half of it, Angel knew that what was happening to him today didn't really rate on the level of terror or pain. But on a purely selfish level it was coming close to a nightmare scenario. The son for whom he had taken on an enormous burden was in grave danger. The woman whom he had once thought he was in love with was very likely the vessel of the great evil that was threatening the world. And the woman he had once considered his soul mate was currently trying to stop the apocalypse-- with her last boyfriend.

Angel knew that these were minor complaints compared to the threat of an apocalypse. But somehow the personal problems were disturbing him more than the possible end of the world. So, after Wesley had received a call from Buffy telling him that she knew what Harmony and Ethan had raised and where it had happened, he went with his gut reaction and said that he would go over to the facility with Wesley and Connor. Giles had demurred, for some reason, electing to stay with Robin and come up with another plan of attack.

"Aren't you concerned about Connor's safety?" Wesley inquired.

"Considering what might have been started today, I think being with us may be the only way to keep him safe," Angel said honestly.

So they took his car and drove to Elysian Park and Serenity Place. Connor had been very quiet on the ride (as he had during earlier discussions) but he spoke up as they rode the final mile.

"This Jasmine, the monster that the bad guys have been trying to raise," Connor began slowly. "Why would I be so important?"

This was a topic that Angel had been hoping to avoid. He chose a half answer. "Because you managed to kill her the first time she came into being," he said.

"How exactly did I do that?" Connor asked, perplexed.

"You-- sorta smashed her face in."

"Really?" Connor considered this. "One blow?"

"Pretty much." Angel spoke with the barest hint of pride.

"Wow, I am strong." Connor thought for a moment. "But if I was so deadly to her, why would she want me alive?"

"I can only think of one reason," Angel said hesitantly.

"Which is?"

"She wants to kill you herself."

Both Angel and Connor glanced back.

Wesley hadn't spoken in a while. His expression was neutral. "Revenge can cause you to do unthinkable things."

Before any of them could say anything else Angel saw that they had reached their destination. "We'll finish this later," he said as he pulled up.

As they got out of the car Angel noticed that there were still some police in front of the building. In his early days in LA that would have been a cause for concern, but one of the advantages of being in charge of a business that bends the law was that it gave you a certain amount of leeway with those who enforce it. All Angel had to say was: "Major Ralston said we could be here," and the officer in charge let them through.

Of course that kind of behavior could be read a different way by some people. "Wonderful. " said a hostile voice from a few feet away. "We tell the cops who we are and we still have to wait until _they_ show up and do the bloody secret handshake."

"Knock it off Spike," Buffy was beginning to sound aggravated herself. Angel took it as a good sign.

"Have you found out anything relevant?" he asked Buffy.

She shook her head. "The police wouldn't let us in to talk to the staff and Andrew hasn't gotten anywhere on the cameras inside the building."

Angel sighed. "So we're nowhere."

"Not quite. Fred called a few minutes ago and said she found something strange from the computer readout. She says there was some weird electrical activity around the building."

"That could have been magical force from the raising," said Wesley.

"No, she said that this activity began around three a.m." Buffy chose her words carefully. "She said it seemed like someone was trying to put a force field around the building."

"You mean someone was trying to protect this place?" Wesley asked. "Who besides us would know how to do that?"

They all contemplated this but no one could even make a guess.

**1:43:29/1:43:30/1:43:31/1:43:32**

"Goddamn it!"

Lorne looked up from the computers in surprise. In the two years he'd known her – years in which there had been a lot of intense situations -- he didn't think he'd ever heard Fred swear or sound so frustrated.

He approached Fred slowly. "I take it you're not having any luck finding Harmony?" he asked.

"My goodness, Lorne, such a penetrating insight and I didn't even have to sing 'Over the Rainbow'!" Fred practically spat out.

She was being snarly. It was almost as distressing as the possibility of the apocalypse. He backed away.

"Lorne, I'm sorry." Fred sounded it too. "It's just I'm so frustrated. I mean all this technology at our disposal and its still like looking for a needle in a haystack." She thought about it. "Although it might be easier to find a needle. I mean if it were made out of steel, a simple magnet would be able to—"

"I get it." Lorne was actually relieved to hear Fred rambling, it gave a certain sense of normality to this. "So there's nothing from any of the cameras at the home."

"No, the cameras were very helpful. They show Cordelia coming from her room, talking to someone and walking out. Alone."

"And because you can't see a vampire on a videotape, there's no way to tell how many of them are helping her," Lorne said, feeling some frustration himself.

"Right." Fred rubbed the edge of her nose. "How about you? Have any of your contacts in the demon part of the city got anything?"

It was a sign of their desperation that Lorne had spent most of the past few hours trying to talk with some of his connections. Ever since he had begun working at Wolfram & Hart most of his old contacts had evaporated. The evil demons didn't trust him because he was working with Angel, and the neutral demons didn't trust him because he was working for Evil Inc. He'd been trying to forge some new ones but it had been difficult for the same reasons.

"They're not eager to talk to me, which I can understand. Most of them say that they want see how this malefactum things plays out."

"Even if it ends up destroying the world?" Fred asked skeptically.

"You'd be surprised how many of them would consider it an improvement." Lorne was walking towards the computers when an idea struck him. "Maybe we're going at this the wrong way."

"I'm listening."

"As far as we know Cordelia and Harmony are together." Lorne said as he walked back. "But Ethan and Thompson didn't leave to pick her up. They must have arranged to meet up with them somewhere."

Fred shook her head. "It's a good idea. The only problem is we have no idea how to find them either. Ethan Rayne disappeared in a cloud of magic and Thompson is too smart to have left a trail."

"That's true," said Lorne. "Except Thompson couldn't just disappear. He had to drive away. "

Suddenly it clicked for Fred. "And he had to use one of the cars that we saw on the traffic cameras!" She leapt to her feet. "Lorne, you want to consider taking my place as the deep thinker at Angel-Slayer?"

"Let's not trade jobs yet. We still haven't found him."

"This could work. Keep your fingers crossed." Fred then looked at Lorne then looked at Lorne's hands and blushed. "Or—I mean--I-- "

Lorne let her off the hook. "They're fingers, honey, even though they don't fing." And as Fred ran over to the computerized projection screen ignoring the bon mot, he crossed them anyway.

**1:50:05/1:50:06/1:50:07/1:50:08**

Giles and Faith had never been entirely comfortable around each other. Maybe it was because, when she had first met him, he had Buffy and he was always comparing her to the charge that he had grown fond of. Or maybe it was because her first Watcher had died and she didn't trust authority figures generally. Whatever it was, they'd had a cool relationship at best even before Faith had gone down her path of darkness. They had both grown a great deal over the past five years but they were still very awkward around each other.

Which was why, after half their number went to meet up with Buffy and Spike in Elysian Park, Giles had become very ill at ease. The feeling grew when Faith suggested that they go back to the building where Dawn, Willow and Spike had been originally held. This didn't bother him so much as the fact that Xander insisted that Robin should ride with him instead of going with Faith. Giles had a pretty good idea what was going on but he said nothing—then or on the drive to the warehouse.

When they got out of the car and there was no sign of Xander or Robin, he knew he was in for it. When he turned around to face Faith she looked about as pissed at him as she'd been in a very long time.

"You know why Xander and Robin aren't here, right." she said quietly.

Giles looked at her. "I think I do."

Faith walked up to him. "If this had happened a couple of years ago, I would have ripped off your arms. As it is I'm seriously considering beating you to a pulp." Faith's voice was still very quiet.

"I understand that you're upset."

"No, you obviously don't. If you did you wouldn't have allowed a man who's probably dying—" Faith stumbled over the phrase "--out on the streets fighting vampires that could take what little time he had left!"

"It was his decision to keep going," Giles said quietly

"That's bullshit!" Faith was getting louder. "He was in no condition to make that choice and you fucking knew it!"

Faith was walking away from Giles now which was probably better for him. "This is not a typical situation and you know it, Faith--" he started

"And don't use the goddamn apocalypse card!" she shouted. "Dying for the good of the world isn't gonna cut it anymore, so drop the stiff upper lip crap!"

Giles knew that there was no way that he could win this argument so he tried his only defense. "I urged him not to do it. I told him that this was no way to end his life. He told me that he had no one else to spend his last hours. He told me he wanted to spend them with the people who mattered most to him. And he didn't want his death to be for nothing. Now maybe this was the wrong choice, but it was still his. And I decided to respect his wishes, even if you won't."

Faith stared at him for what seemed like a long time but was probably less than ten seconds. Finally she began to speak in a quiet tone. "We don't have time to waste yelling about what should have been done. And obviously we still need you today. So for now I will let this go." She was right in Giles' face. "But when this day is over I am going to the board and demand that you be fired."

Despite himself Giles was stunned. "Faith, I…"

"I don't want to hear it." Faith walked away. "Now let's go and see if we can find where these damn scum are."

Giles took a moment before following her into the warehouse. And as he walked, he tried to forget the look in Faith's eyes, the look that said they were done.

He wasn't surprised he couldn't.

**1:56:12/1:56:13/1:56:14**

Most of the people who worked at Angel-Slayer had long since adjusted themselves to keeping long hours and having odd schedules. Unfortunately, Leonard hadn't been working there long enough to build up any kind of internal mechanism to adjust to this kind of lifestyle.

As a result Leonard—who hadn't stayed up for thirty six straight hours since college -- was beginning to feel the effects of sleep deprivation.

He felt as if he was moving in some kind of fog. Walking was very difficult. He had trouble maintaining his balance. It took a great deal of effort for him just to look at the screen shots of the traffic cameras as his vision kept fading in and out.

He decided to get another cup of coffee. It was his sixth in the last eight hours and it had long since passed the point where it was helping, but he hoped that the act might rouse him. No such luck. It took him nearly thirty seconds to walk from his station to the break room and it was less than twenty feet away.

"Leonard, my man, you'll pardon me for saying this but you look like crap." Despite his words Gunn sounded sympathetic. "You need this more than I do." He handed Leonard a mug.

"I don't know why I'm bothering it's not like this stuff worked for me when I _didn't_ need it too. " He swigged down half the mugs contents anyway. "How do you guys do it?" he asked curiously.

"Survive without sleep?" asked Gunn. Leonard nodded even though his head felt like it weighed a hundred pounds. "For me it's pretty simple. Adrenalin. When you're fighting for your life your body has to give you a boost or—" Gunn made a throat slash gesture. "Eventually your body produces enough for you to keep you going under normal circumstances."

Leonard tried to look at Gunn—it was getting hard to focus again. "And for those who spend most of the battles on the sidelines?" he said doubtfully.

Gunn shrugged. "The body can manage to adjust to a lot of things. Couple of months—provided we get through this—and you…"

Whatever he was going to say died on his lips when he looked at Leonard. The young man was standing erect and had begun to shake. The mug quivered until it had fallen out of his hand.

Gunn had thought that Leonard was having a vision and moved forward to steady him. Which is why it shocked him when he found himself pushed back to one of the walls.

He didn't pick himself up because his memory had just clicked as to when he had seen this happen before. A month ago in a bar he had witnessed what could only be described as an evil spirit possessing Leonard's body.

It was unnerving enough but he didn't get frightened until Leonard began to speak.

At the exact same time in the convalescent home, Buffy, Angel, Wesley and Connor were freaking out as well. Because ten seconds earlier Spike, who, as far as they knew had no psychic powers to tap into, was doing the exact same thing as Leonard.

"What the hell is going on?" said Angel.

Before anyone could answer Spike opened his mouth.

"Hello, pals of mine," said the voice of Cordelia. "Bet you never thought you'd hear me talking again."

**1:59:57/1:59:58/1:59:59/2:00:00**


	15. 2PM to 3PM

Chapter 15

The Following Takes Place Between 2 PM and 3PM

On the Day of The Autumnal Equinox.

"Just so that we're all on the same page," said the voice of Cordelia through Spike's mouth, "this is Jasmine you're hearing. And I am currently delivering this message simultaneously to mine enemies through Leonard Kopell at Wolfram & Hart and through William the Bloody at the place that I called home for a while." Her voice became a great deal chillier as she delivered these last words. "I may not be reaching all of you but I have great confidence that the people who get this will be sure to share the message."

Buffy and Connor, as well as the orderlies and other 'non-combatants' on the first floor of the convalescent homes, were clearly freaked out by what was happening to Spike. Wesley and Angel were disturbed as well but for a different reason. They had both witnessed Jasmine do this trick before, but only on people who had "bonded" with her. They understood what was happening, just not how. That was the least of their problems at the moment but it still bothered them.

"You know I think I can guess what some of you are thinking."

Wesley and Angel exchanged a quick glance: could she see them too?

"Why do I sound like Cordelia?"

Both men breathed easier. Having her at full power would have been a little too much to deal with.

"Simple. Once I was…" the voice hesitated ever so slightly. "…banished from the physical plane-- and after a brief stop in a place where none should visit-- I went back to the last place that held me. To rest and regroup. And while I was there I absorbed all of the physical and spiritual material that was your friend. Now we truly are one and the same. I have all of her memories and she has all of my essence." Her voice grew even more cheerful. "A fair exchange indeed."

In a distant corner of his soul Angel felt a great deal of anguish pass through him. That couldn't mean what he thought it did—could it?

"Now I know that you all must have a lot of questions. However, you're not going to get an answer. Because strictly speaking I'm not here."

"Well then who's talking to us?" Buffy demanded, sounding more miffed than scared.

"I can't control people in the same way I could before. You took care of that real nice." Cordelia/Jasmine sounded scornful. "I can, however, project my spirit into those whose souls have some kind of supernatural caste to them. The service is strictly one-way so this will be a soliloquy, not a dialogue."

"That doesn't sound like Jasmine." said Wesley quietly.

"Well fucking duh, she just explained that." Buffy was becoming more and more aggravated.

Wesley remained calm. "I mean that her speech, her idioms, they sound like things Cordelia would say, not Jasmine."

"You're saying that Cordy may be in there somewhere?" Angel asked.

**2:04:33/2:04:34/2:04:35**

Across town Gunn and Fred, who had shown up when she heard the racket, had been going through a very similar line of thought and found themselves asking the exact same question.

However, they were hung up on a different issue. "You know this would be a whole lot easier to take seriously if Cordelia wasn't talking through Leonard," said Gunn. "I mean, looking at him makes me feel like we're in a Japanese monster movie."

"Jasmine," Fred corrected him.

"What?"

"That's Jasmine controlling Leonard, not Cordy."

"Well, if you believe her, it's the same difference," Gunn said in a quieter tone. "Sounds a lot like her, doesn't it?"

Fred seemed about to respond when a thought struck her. "Why did she stop talking?"

Gunn looked at Leonard, Jasmine-- whoever the hell it was. "Maybe she's finished," he said. So of course two seconds later Cordelia/Jasmine began speaking again.

"I bet that you thought I was gone," the voice said cheerfully. "Sorry to fade out like that but this kind of projection isn't easy when you're stuck in a primitive body. But don't worry kids, I still control the horizontal and the vertical."

Gunn and Fred exchanged a glance. "Sure they're the same," Gunn said doubtfully.

"But the reason I've gone to all this trouble," Cordelia/Jasmine continued, "is to deliver a very important message to all of you-- especially Angel and Connor."

When the two of them heard their names neither one's expression changed.

All the good humor left her voice. "Connor, you helped give me life and then you took it away from me. I think it's only fair that I return the favor," Jasmine/Cordelia sounded very grim indeed, "only it won't be as simple as a fist through the face. No, you're going to feel pain you can't imagine," she paused, "Father."

Even though he had no memory of her at all, Connor shivered just the same.

"As for you my beloved grandsire…" her voice took a lusty tone. "Before our last discussion was interrupted I told you that you were going to be on the wrong side of an apocalypse." The tone disappeared. "Now that I'm back I have every intention of keeping my promise.

"As for those of you I don't know," Cordelia/Jasmine now sounded a little human. "I am a merciful god. I will give the rest of you until nightfall to get out of Los Angeles."

"Like that's gonna happen," Gunn said derisively

"I know that most of you consider yourselves brave and fearless," she said with a touch of mockery. "You'll probably want to stay and fight. I'll just say one thing." She paused. "Your deaths will make the Passion seem like a school play."

As they considered that, the voice continued merrily: "Well, it's been good talking to you. Now if you'll excuse me, this projection has made me a bit peckish, so I think I'll get something to eat. Bye for now."

And with that Leonard and Spike, across town, fell to the ground in a heap.

Fred and Gunn moved to Leonard. "You okay?" Fred asked as she helped him up.

"If I'd... known… this was in... the package…I'd have asked for… a better health plan," Leonard gasped as he got to his feet.

"Now that the show is over," Fred asked, "what do we do now?"

**2:11:06/2:11:07:2:11:08/2:11:09**

"Are you all right, Spike?" Buffy had rushed to the blond vampire after he had fallen to the ground.

"I've just been used as a bloody public address system by whatever big bad this lady is," said Spike as he picked himself off the ground. "Yeah I'm all sweetness and light."

"It's not an unreasonable question," Angel said. "The last time Jasmine pulled this off, she had complete control over whomever it was she used to talk through."

"He's right," Wesley concurred. "For all we know Jasmine could be in Spike." He realized what he had said. "Oh for a different phrasing."

"_Is_ she?" Angel asked, who didn't seem uncomfortable at all with the suggestion.

Spike looked very indignant. "Typical. I do something really freaky and everyone thinks that I'm possessed."

"Right," said Angel walking towards him, "because nothing like that has ever happened to you before."

Spike's dander was up now. "As I recall, mate, The First made you its bitch four years before it ever got its claws into me," he said walking over to Angel.

"Maybe, but it didn't make me start killing people without even knowing that I was doing it." The two were practically nose to nose.

"ENOUGH!" That drew everyone's attention. Buffy didn't usually shout even when she was angry. "We so do not time for this 'who made the better killer' bullshit." She walked over to both of them. "We are at DefCon One here and I don't have time for the two of you to get in a pissing contest!"

This reached both vampires and they stalked off into opposite sides of the hall.

"Now we need to figure out how to hell to find Jasmine and what she's planning. Any sensible ideas?"

There were a few seconds of silence, then Connor, who had not said anything since hearing Cordelia's/Jasmine/Spike's message, meekly spoke up: "I have a question?" When no one raised any objections he continued. "Just how strong do we think she is right now?"

"Blimey," said Spike in exasperation. "Didn't you hear her?"

"Yes I heard her," Connor went on doggedly, "but Jasmine—Cordelia-- whoever she is said that she wasn't doing the same thing that she did earlier."

"Possession," Wesley began thoughtfully. "No, she said that she was projecting herself."

"Well if she isn't as powerful as she was-- you know, back in the day," said Connor awkwardly, "how far away could she be projecting from? Wouldn't she have to be, you know, close by?'

Wesley snapped his fingers. "Of course. And didn't she say that she was projecting through Leonard back at Angel Slayer? That would tax whatever power she has still further."

"Let's not get carried away," Buffy said going to Wesley." If she was able to pull of that trick she must have something under the hood."

"Maybe. Or maybe she's closer than we think." Wesley pulled out his cell and began dialing. "I'm betting that she's somewhere between Elysian Park and Wolfram & Hart."

"That covers a lot of ground, Wes," Angel cautioned.

"Which is one of the things our organization can do." Wesley said as he held the phone to his ear. "Fred, it's us. Did you…" He paused. "So you got the same message we did."

As Wesley spoke to Fred, Angel went to Connor. "That was good thinking, son."

"Yeah. You got some real brains," Spike piped up.

Connor looked down shyly. "Thanks."

"They must come from your mother's side of the family," Spike said with a straight face.

**2:16:59/2:17:00/2:17:01**

For the benefit of the people who worked there, most of the scientific and technical labs in the Wolfram & Hart were soundproof. As a result when the hue and cry that came with Cordelia/Jasmine's transmission to Angel-Slayer, Willow and Andrew, working in the computer lab, had no idea of the chaos that was happening one floor up.

However there was a very good chance that even had Jasmine materialized in the lab, sung a rendition of 'Stairway to Heaven' and than vanished back into the ether from whence she'd come, neither would have looked up from their work. Willow and Andrew were different about almost everything but about one thing they were exactly the same: put them in front of a computer screen and the world disappeared. Both were so efficient that they had moved onto something different from what they had started out doing. Willow was checking some of the emails in Thompson's account and Andrew, after a brief talk with Fred, was trying to track down the Wolfram & Hart executive using the car he had driven from the warehouse in when Willow had been held prisoner.

Both had been working in silence, respectful of the other. Then suddenly Andrew spoke up gently: "Willow?'

"What?" Willow sounded impatient though she wasn't looking up from her screen.

"Were you able to get any new information out of the last few emails?"  
"Is there anything in particular that you had in mind?" Willow said with a trace of sarcasm.

"Anything related to Venice Beach?"

Now Willow did look up. "You have something that leads us there?"

"Maybe." Andrew punched in commands that brought up an overhead view of a highway. "I finally picked up Thompson's car going down the Santa Monica freeway."

"When?"

"About an hour and a half ago." He brought up the section of Los Angeles that he had been looking at before. "After that I picked him up heading East down Venice Boulevard for a while and then…" He shook his head in confusion. "It's like he just vanishes."

"Considering who he works for , that's not entirely impossible," said Willow only half in jest.

"Except that I keep thinking that there's something about those two locations that I've heard about before." He looked over at her. "They mean anything to you?"

She thought for several seconds. "Ooh I think I got it. Way back when we got started on this magical mystery tour, one of the vampire cults we were tracking met in a diner in Santa Monica. Now that isn't that far from Venice as the bat flies."

He thought about it. "As I recall Buffy and Lorne checked out most of that location and didn't find bupkus."

Willow looked at him, bemused. "Since when does a nerd like you know Yiddish?"

"Focus Will," he said without smiling.

"Sorry. I still feel a little-- ooky from being drained." She thought again. "Is there anything near that part of town that would be a place where the villains might hide?"

Andrew punched some keys and brought up a map. After a few seconds he shook his head. "Nothing that stands out but, then, I don't know what to look for."

Willow moved closer to the screen. "Do we have any street photographs of the area?"

"Give me a few seconds." He began punching in a sequence of commands. "You know for an evil corporation this place has some really brilliant computer programs."

"I guess if you want to be the best you have to have the best even if you're on the dark side of the force," said Willow. The photographs began coming up, interrupting further discussion.

They were only working for a few seconds when they heard the indignant voice of Gunn: "Damn. World's coming to an end and you can't get away from your computers."

Willow blushed—but didn't turn from the screen. "We're trying to help save the world, Gunn. This is how we do it."

He moved towards them. "I know and I expected to see you working, not looking at old real estate. How the…" Gunn trailed off. "What the hell?"

Andrew stopped pressing the keys. "What? Did you see something?'

Gunn shook his head. "Go back one." As Andrew did Gunn moved forward until he was right beside Willow. He looked at screen for several seconds. "What the hell?"

Willow looked at the monitor. On it was a picture of a large, relatively old manor. "What is this place?" she asked.

Gunn didn't answer right away. Instead he asked: "This mansion, it's in Santa Monica right?"

Now Andrew turned away from the screen. "Yes. How'd you recognize it?" he asked.

"I'm not a hundred percent certain but I'm pretty sure that's the mansion where Holtz trained his troops to fight Angel."

**2:25:26/2:25:27/2:25:28/2:25:29**

There was a reason that Xander was a joker. A lot of it was a cover how truly unpleasant and painful his life in general really was. But part of it was because he had a vivid imagination that, when pressed into action, could picture the worst possible conclusion to almost any scenario. Which was one of the reasons he became a babbler when the end of the world seemed upon them.

The first reason had gradually diminished over the course of his being a Scooby. The second part was still a problem. Fortunately, his mind was arranged in such a way that he could only deal with one major crisis at the time

Now he sat in the hospital waiting room-- well, waiting-- for the nurse who had led Robin off to his bed. Xander was trying (even he couldn't believe it) to concentrate on that someone he knew was going to die so he didn't have to worry about the fact that the world was heading for meltdown.

Neither attempt was going very well.

He wasn't particularly proud of it, but the plain truth was that he was running on empty. He hadn't slept in thirty-six hours, hadn't eaten in sixteen and it seemed like he had been through every major battle they'd fought in the last twelve. Of the Sunnydale group he had the smallest threshold for exhaustion. He had passed that limit a long time ago. On top of all this, having to deal with knowing that the forces for Evil were probably going to use Cordelia--

He mentally walled off that particular avenue of thought. Xander knew that he was on the verge of a complete breakdown. He didn't want to deal with this now. And if that was a cowardly approach, well…

"I'm not king of the forest," he muttered without realizing he was speaking. Unfortunately, he was loud enough for an old woman waiting nearby to hear him.

"You all right, sonny?" she asked gently.

There were only ten million reasons he was not all right, but he chose to articulate none of them. "I'm okay," he said in, what he hoped was, a convincing tone. Apparently it worked because the woman turned her attention back to her book.

Leaving Xander to contemplate Robin. Oh, this was pleasant. When his cell phone rang a few seconds later he half hoped that it was Buffy calling to inform him that the Rapture had started and he was going to miss the big finish.

"Yeah."

"It's going that well, huh?"

It wasn't as bad as that but hearing this voice didn't make him feel a whole lot better. "Hey Faith."

"Are you there?" No doubt which "there" she meant.

"Yeah, I'm at Kildare General. It's the big hospital off Wilshire."

Pause. "Did he give much of an argument?"

"No. When I told him where I was taking him, he just said: 'You're right. I guess it's time.'" Xander shook his head as he remembered. "He… he really is very brave."

There was another long pause. "How's he doing?" There was a mild note of concern in her voice. From Faith that was a cry of pain.

"They're getting him a bed. A nurse is going to come get me when he's settled."

"They wouldn't let you go in with him?"

"I'm not his family."

Another pause. "Yes you are."

Xander needed to swallow. "That's…nice of you but…"

"I know what you meant." Another hesitation, longer this time. "How bad does he…look?"

Xander thought. "A little tired, a little flushed. All things considered he doesn't look that bad."

"But then you didn't notice he was dying until I told you." There was no blame in Faith's voice, just pain. "Goddamn it, I should be there with him!"

Xander knew what he had to say but that didn't mean that he liked it. "We need you where you are. He knows that." He swallowed trying to get the taste out of his mouth.

"I know." Faith took a deep breath. "Look, if…if he gets worse…I mean really bad…I want you to call me and--"

Xander didn't let her finish. "Faith, you don't need to know if he--" For all his years of dealing with death he couldn't finish the sentence.

"I don't care. Do it."

"All right. I will." And even as Xander spoke he knew he would not keep his promise.

**2:32:44/2:32:45/2:32:46**

Giles knew that they were wasting valuable time as Faith completed her call to hospital, but he knew better than to point it out. Faith had already made her feelings quite clear about his decision to keep silent: any other pestering there might well be a violent. Despite her reformation, the dark-haired Slayer was very mercurial and given her emotional state--

_Stop thinking like a Watcher,_ he said mentally. _Face the facts. You took a bad situation and helped make it worse. She's pissed at you and when Faith gets pissed bad things can happen._

Right. And he also knew that the only way to get her mind off the situation was deal with the more immediate problem.

Unfortunately the search of the warehouse that had been the Forces of Evil's hideout wasn't going much better. And now Giles was beginning to wonder how much more time they could afford to spend on it. They'd been there half an hour and the trail was only getting colder.

Faith walked up to Giles. To her credit she was keeping her expression and attitude completely neutral. "Don't tell me we still haven't found anything."

If Buffy had made the comment, even given the situation, he might have made a small jest. Instead he settled for honesty. "I've finished checking the back rooms. There's nothing here that tells us anything."

She scowled. "According to Willow, she and Spike were held prisoner here for nearly three hours. You're telling me that they didn't leave one clue that they were here."

Giles gestured towards the back entrance. "In addition to improving their abilities at evil, they also learned to clean up after themselves. There's barely any rubbish from whatever they ate."

Faith began to pace. "Ethan Rayne and you went to school together, right?"

"Yes."

"And every year or so in Sunnydale, he would pop up and do something to mess with your head."

"Unfortunately that's also right."

"So you don't think he wouldn't take this golden opportunity to do a monumental mind-fuck on you?"

Giles considered for several seconds. He was about to say something along the lines of _Yes but I don't know what_ when something in his memory clicked. "Hold on. " He turned around and headed towards the rear of the warehouse.

In the front of one of the parking spaces there had been a trash can. At first glance it had seemed that no clues were there but…

"I saw something," He muttered to himself as he grabbed the small receptacle. He didn't even have to dig in, what he was looking for was right at the top of the rubbish. "Voila." He removed a wrapper of a chocolate bar.

"What did you find?" Faith asked as she closed the distance between them.

"A little hint." said Giles.

Faith peered at it. "Ethan gave a hint on the back of a Cocoariffic candy bar?"

"This is the kind of chocolate that Ethan used when he played his little game with the band candy. " Giles shuddered as he remembered the unpleasant (and one pleasant) memories of that particular trick. "Figures he'd keep trophies of that."

"What message did he leave?"

Giles looked at the inside of the wrapper. "A cryptic one, naturally."

"How cryptic?" asked Faith.

"We left something near the park at the beach. But hurry up before we let this genie out of the bottle."

Neither had any idea what Ethan was talking about but they knew that some fresh hell was about to be set loose.

**2:38:28/2:38:29/2:38:30/2:38:31**

Despite her reputation Harmony did have a fairly strong stomach. Which wasn't strange. Even if you weren't directly involved in the action, you had to be able to handle a lot if you wanted to survive in Sunnydale. So she didn't have any problem taking some of the people that had been preparing the malefactum for a good long time and handing them over to Cordelia for a mid-day snack.

She did not, however, watch as Cordy chowed down.

"After all," she said to one of her henchmen (one thing that she had learned was that _no_body liked to be called a minion), "despite everything Jasmine owes me she still might decide to snuff me. Considering what the last vampire did to her I don't think its that big a leap."

Now as Cordelia (Harmony was still having a hard time calling her Jasmine) finished off the last of her meal Harmony decided that it was time to get her to help with the next phase of the plan.

Harmony walked into the main room of the abandoned building that she, Cordelia/Jasmine and a few of her followers were holed up in. Strictly speaking the building hadn't been abandoned, the previous owner had just been snuffed. But that was a minor and irrelevant detail.

She entered the room where she had left Cordelia/Jasmine and three of her followers. Cordelia was now the only one in the room with only three empty sets of clothes to indicate that the others had been there at all.

"So I hope that the meal I supplied was to your liking?" Crap, she sounded like a maitre'd at a fancy restaurant, not like the cool calculating villainess she had hoped she was becoming.

Cordelia fixed her with the kind of stare that she had mastered by the time she was thirteen. "It was scrum-diddly-umptious," she said dryly. "Can't we get on with the rest of today's events?"

Fixing her with a stare, Harmony decided to bring up the one thing that was troubling her. "You know, for a deity who was once the great ruler of another dimension, you sound an awful lot like my friend from high school."

Unfortunately Cordelia had always been able to outstare her even when they were both in high school. "Yeah? Well for someone who wants to be a master villainess you sound a lot like the mindless sheep that Cordelia knew in high school," she snapped back

"You're not doing a great job of convincing me that I'm talking to the right goddess." Harmony said as she began to close the distance between them.

Cordelia/Jasmine got a very condescending look on her face. "You know perfectly will that when I was—" Harmony was pretty sure Cordelia was going to say killed before stopping herself "--forced to return to the body that held me, much of the memories and personality of my host began to seep into my own spirit."

"That's the kind of thing that has me worried." Harmony felt herself regaining the manner of cool cockiness that she possessed. "In case you have forgotten, before you took her over the woman was a champion. How do I know some of her conscience won't do something to undermine everything at some critical point in the plan?"

She finished this remark by sneering at Cordelia-- a gesture she quickly wished she could take back when the girl reached out, grabbed her blouse and pulled her in.

"Listen very carefully because, after six months in limbo, I've run out of patience." Cordelia was practically snarling in her ears. "I may look like Cordelia Chase and I may sound like her on occasion, but that's all there is. Cordelia Chase is DEAD. Jasmine is the sole possessor of this body now." Without warning Jasmine shoved Harmony back hard against a wall. "Get that?"

Harmony picked herself up. "Loud and clear." she said coldly. Even though it was exactly what she and Ethan had set out to accomplish, she was a little dissatisfied by the end result.

"Good." Cordelia/Jasmine brushed herself off. "Now where exactly are we on the rest of it?"

Harmony definitely didn't want to take orders from her now but she realized that this was what they had wanted. "We're ready to meet up with the rest of our people," she answered, straightening her blouse. It was a Burbury and she didn't want it rumpled. "Once we get out of here, we're going to rendezvous with Thompson in Baldwin Hills. If everything is going according to plan, he should be picking up another to help with this evening's festivities."

"Who?"

Harmony gave a very sinister grin. "Let's just say that he's someone your father was never supposed to meet."

Cordelia/Jasmine pondered this for several seconds before the realization hit her. "You don't mean--"

"I do."

"But I thought… how did you…?"

"Before Justine Cooper died valiantly for our cause, she told us where to find him." Harmony gave a little curtsey. "I told you this was well planned."

For the first time Cordelia/Jasmine seemed impressed by Harmony. "And the do-gooders, how do you plan to keep them from interfering?"

Now Harmony had all of her confidence back. "Ethan's going to be keeping them busy. He may not be able to stop all of them but he can keep them occupied until we assemble our full forces. By the time today is over, they won't have anywhere to run."

**2:47:23/2:47:23/2:47:24/2:47:25**

When they had agreed to follow Connor's suggestion and search nearby houses for Jasmine (Angel was deliberately only thinking of her as that person) Angel, Buffy, Wesley and Spike had known that it wouldn't be easy. It was nearly ten miles from the home in Elysian Park to the offices of Wolfram & Hart which meant that they had a lot of territory to cover and not a lot of time to cover it. And then there was the problem that the search was based on the foundation that Jasmine would stay where she had broadcast her message from-- which was a very big if.

It was therefore clear to everyone that they would have to split up again. Because they didn't have the time to try and sort out who should go with whom, they decided that they would stay in the groups they had already formed: Buffy and Spike in one, Angel, Wesley and Connor in another. Angel wasn't particularly thrilled with the arrangement but he knew it was easier than going into a long explanation that Buffy would down anyway.

So they set off-- Buffy and Spike going down the west side of the street, the others going down the east side. Speaking for themselves Angel and the others weren't having a great deal of luck.

For one thing there weren't a great deal of abandoned buildings in that part of town. Most of them were apartments and places of business, which meant people. And, for all of the power Angel-Slayer had, they couldn't just go into other people's places without good reason. And since they couldn't use the truth they were verbally stumbling to find ones that worked.

"I don't care what you're talking about a dangerous killer in the neighborhood, Mr. _Price._" The matronly lady standing behind the latched door of the complex spoke in a very disdainful tone. "Unless you show me some kind of warrant I'm not letting you or anybody else into my building."

Wesley made sure that there was nobody else on the street besides Angel and Connor, then pulled out his gun. "Ma'am I am going to have to insist that you let us in."

The tough looking women considered this for a moment before closing the door and opening it properly.

"I'm glad you understand…" Wesley's voice ran down. Angel, standing a few feet away, soon understood why. The woman was now pointing a large shotgun at him.

"You're not the cops 'cause you don't have badges. You're not Homeland Security because you haven't got my place surrounded. You're not Jehovah's Witnesses cause you haven't tried to save me." Angel couldn't remember the last time that he'd seen a glare from a crone like this. "Now I don't what your goddamn game this is, but you can play it somewhere else. Get the fuck out of here NOW."

Wesley wasn't cowed by many people but he knew when he was outmatched. He put the gun back in his jacket and very quickly walked back to rejoin Angel and Connor.

"You think there's any chance that she's working with Harmony and Ethan?" from Angel.

Wesley shook his head. "I think they would have killed her rather than go through all of the rigmarole. I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't take Jasmine here. Best to move on."

As they walked to the next building Connor began speaking hesitantly. "Look I'm really glad that you're all taken my ideas so seriously."

"But—"Wesley began.

"I've never done this stuff. I mean, even when I was…" Connor made a broad gesture, "the person you knew I was never known for my intellect."

"You're underselling yourself," Angel said quickly, even though Connor's assessment was basically correct.

"Even so we should consider that I might be wrong about my hypothesis. I mean we've been to nine buildings and we haven't struck gold yet."

_My son knows what hypothesis means,_ Angel thought. Aloud he said: "Well I think maybe we can try one more place. Then we'll call Buffy and see if we can figure out another idea." He looked around. "Let's try this one."

He began to walk up to what looked to be an old mechanic's shop called 'Ike's Auto Repair' which seemed conspicuous because there was only one car near the place. Working on it was a young man with motor oil on his pants.

"Excuse me, are you Ike?" Angel said as he walked up to him.

"No I'm Seth. Ike retired three months ago." The mechanic got up from behind the car. "Who are you?"

"Uh, my name is Angel."

"Really?" In a motion so fast it surprised him, 'Seth' pulled out a gun and shot Angel in the chest. The force of the bullet blew him back against the car. "Get them!" "Seth" shouted.

In seconds Wesley had his own gun out but before he could get off a shot, two figures tackled him from behind. One pinned his shoulders, the other grabbed his legs.

As Wesley began to struggle against them, he realized something quickly.

His assailants were human.

Connor in the meantime was running towards Wesley before he was tackled by another burly looking man. Connor reacted quickly, spun around and slammed him against the wall of the repair place. The man collapsed.

Angel in the meantime was standing again. "I hate it when they shoot me." he muttered before charging the men holding Wesley's shoulders. The two of them struggled for a few second before Angel managed to knock him to the ground. Wesley in the meantime, managed to find the strength to lift his legs up and kick his other foe in the stomach—a move which knocked the air out of him causing the enemy to sprawl on the ground.

"You all right?" Angel asked. Wesley was about to reply when he turned around and saw that "Seth" had gotten behind Connor and was cocking his pistol.

"CONNOR!" Angel started running, knowing it was futile knowing there was no way he could outrun a bullet.

And Connor would have died if, at the second before the gun was fired, the would-be killer was hit with a bolt of electric energy. He collapsed in a heap.

Angel and Wesley turned to the east where the bolt had come from.

And were struck speechless by the sight of the man who had saved Connor.

"I suppose you were expecting somebody else?" said Lindsey McDonald.

**2:59:57/2:59:58/2:59:59/3:00:00**


	16. 3PM to 4PM

Chapter 16

The Following takes place between 3 PM and 4 PM on the day of the autumnal equinox

Considering who they had fought against today-- Justine and Ethan were the most obvious examples-- and who the bad guys had brought back, Angel supposed that he shouldn't have been so surprised to find that Lindsey McDonald would make a reappearance -- the former Wolfram & Hart lawyer who had not been seen by either side since his "resignation" two years ago. He was, however, surprised to find that, (1) Lindsey was apparently fighting on the side of good and (2) he had apparently learned some pretty powerful magic. He barely time had to contemplate that before he had a more pressing problem to deal with.

Apparently the humans that had been recruited by the side of evil were as persistent as the undead ones. One of the attackers-- the one who had tackled Wesley-- was getting to their feet despite having taken a sizable amount of punishment. Angel was getting ready for round two when Wesley spoke up in a strong voice.

"I admire your spirit but if you wish to live stay down."

Angel turned around knowing what he would see before he saw it -- Wes had drawn his gun again.

Apparently they didn't get the message easily because one of them charged Wesley. An instant later a loud crack filled the air. The would-be assailant was on the ground, writhing in pain.

Wesley walked until he was standing right over the writhing man. "The next shot goes into your stomach. Stay fucking put."

Angel had become inured to Wesley's killer instinct. Others weren't. "Christ," Lindsey said, only half in jest. "I thought that you people were the good guys."

"We are," Angel said, "which is one of the reasons why you're still breathing."

Lindsey put up his hands. "I just saved your son's life and you still don't trust me."

"Forgive us for the lack of confidence," said Wesley as he walked over to him, "but you don't have the track record for it."

"Considering that I saved your life earlier today I'd think I'd have earned some cred with you."

"Saved my…" It hit Wesley. "The ball of fire that killed those vampires at Thompson's place. That was you?"

Lindsey gave a modest bow but before he could say anything Angel spoke. "Well thanks for all your help but considering that you have…whatever the hell it is that you have, you could have been doing a lot more than just the random life-saving."

Now Lindsey was starting to get pissed. "Look who's talking. You're the ones who inherited all the old resources I had access to. You have the money, the people, the power to stop this thing, and you're just swinging in the damn wind. And despite all of the power I now have there's only so much that I can do." As the others considered this, he added: "Just in case you hadn't noticed I now have a shitload of magical power at my fingertips so I would appreciate if you got that gun out of my face."

Wesley had trained his gun on the former attorney. He lowered his aim from Lindsey's head to his chest. "If you want us to start trusting you, you could explain how it is you managed to get access to this 'shitload of magical power.'"

Lindsey gave a small smile. "_Reader's Digest_ version? I knew I couldn't just walk away from Wolfram & Hart. No one just leaves. So I've spent the last two years acquiring the only thing that would keep me safe."

"Magic?" said Connor.

Lindsey fixed him with a frown. "Power. Fortunately it turns out that having an evil hand makes it easier to learn black magic. I traveled across the country going to some of the major magical hot spots -- even spent some time at the Hellmouths -- learning whatever I could. By using the right kinds of cloaking spells and traveling at the right times I was able to stay below the Wolfram & Hart radar." Noting the looks on Angel and Wesley's face, he added: "Of course, it also helped that, for the last couple of years, they've been occupied."

"Me and Connor," said Angel.

"That whole mess with the Beast upset their looking for me."

Wesley fixed him with a very cold look. "I'm glad the deaths of hundreds of people was such a big help to keeping you safe."

Lindsey matched the expression. "Self-preservation was the name of the game at my old place of business. Don't try and pretty it up." Before Wesley could respond, he added: "And don't pretend that part of you wasn't glad when they got slaughtered."

"Why did you come back to LA now?" Angel asked before this got any uglier.

"For the same reason that you're all here. Word gets out in the mystical world that the apocalypse is coming. I came by to help."

"So you're doing this strictly for the good of mankind."

Wesley knew he had struck a nerve with that question. Lindsay squirmed a little. "Well…the only way I could get Wolfram & Hart's hounds off my ass was by doing some high-level extortion. Some major dirt on the bigger players in the firms."

Angel got the rest of it. "And when the former tenants met their untimely ends, your blackmail scam was scrapped. Nothing to stop them from hunting you down."

"So I came here to strike a deal with you. Figure if your gang of goody-goodies back me up, you'll help protect me from the senior partners." Lindsey didn't flinch as he described his callow bravery to them.

"So all your helping us, aiding us…you're trying to score points so we don't serve you up to the big boys downstairs." Wesley shook his head. "You've got to be joking."

Now Lindsey got angry. "Hey I've been helping you all day. I put up a force field around the home where you were keeping Cordelia to keep evil out."

"And look how well that worked," Wesley said, sarcastically.

"I've been backing you up since before since seven a.m. I saved your life and your son's."

"Yeah, but what have you done for us lately?" said Angel.

Lindsey was looking like he might do something dangerous when Connor suddenly spoke up.

"Why are the two of you breaking his balls?" he asked, agitated.

"Connor, even when you had your memory, you didn't know this guy. You don't know how slippery and double-crossing he can be," Angel explained.

"Maybe," said Connor, "but do we really have a choice? Like Buffy said, we don't have time to pick and choose. We need allies no matter what they used to do."

Feeling sickened, Angel realized Connor was right. They needed whatever power they could get and Lindsey certainly had that. "All right," he said to Lindsay. "But your information better help us. And our help against the senior partners isn't quid pro quo."

Lindsey smiled. "Four months in the place and you're talking like a lawyer."

Angel ignored him and turned to Wesley. "Get a hold of Fred and Gunn. Ask them how we can best use Mr. Formerly-Evil Hand."

Wesley took out his phone without arguing. As he dialed Lindsey joked: "Don't be so upset. It's not like you've made a deal with the devil." Pause. "Again."

Angel tried to ignore the jibe. In his heart he knew that that was exactly what he had done.

Only this devil was known to backslide.

**3:12:29/3:12:30/3:12:31/3:12:32**

In all the years that she had spent fighting him, caring for him, and varying combinations of the two, Buffy was pretty sure that she had never seen Spike looking the way that he did now. Reflective, contemplative, thoughtful almost.

Initially she had decided not to mention it to keep from distracting them from the task of searching the buildings as they looked for Cordelia. However, after half an hour with no sign of anyone, Buffy couldn't keep her curiosity to herself any longer.

"All right, what the hell has got you thinking so deeply?" Before Spike could react she said: "That sounded a lot nicer in my head. I meant-- "

"I know what you meant." Spike sighed and looked up. "I was thinking that for all the differences me and The Great Brooder, we're probably thinking the same thing about today."

"And that is?" asked Buffy, half-curious, half-afraid.

"That this is the first day in God knows how many years that we can walk around in the sunlight and instead of spending it doing something with people we care about" he emphasized the word 'care', "we're wasting it looking for my ex."

This was a fairly emotional statement for Spike and she had never been entirely sure how to handle that. "I don't think that you could call what we're doing as 'wasting time.'" she said seriously.

He took it the wrong way. "Well I'm sure we're doing important work looking for Cordelia and Harmony," he said walking off a bit.

"What I meant was I don't consider time spent with you as wasted." The second that she said those words, she realized that she had revealed far more of her feelings than she had meant to. There were all kinds of unpleasant and pleasant possibilities in what she had said-- more than they could get into at this point.

Which is why when her phone began ringing, she pulled it out and answered it before the subject could be pursued further. "Yeah?" she snapped.

"I just called you and you're already pissed at me?" Faith's voice had the smallest trace of humor in it.

"Sorry Faith, it's just that… " Buffy trailed off.

"Long day? " Faith laughed, but it was tinged with bitterness. "I know there's no rest for the wicked, but good doesn't get a hell of a lot either."

Buffy thought a second. "Didn't Giles say this when we started this whole thing?"

"I knew I'd heard someone say it before."

Buffy rubbed her free hand over her face. "You call for a reason or just to wax poetic?"

Seriousness filled her tone. "Yeah. I just got off with Fred. How to put this?" She paused. "Do you remember that truck that Ethan and Harmony used to get Spike out of the Hollywood Bowl?"

"You mean the truck I spent an hour looking for earlier? Sounds vaguely familiar," said Buffy.

Faith ignored the sarcasm. "Apparently Fred kept one of her magic eyes on it just to be safe. And apparently it's a good thing she did because twenty minutes ago it started moving again."

"Well, it stopped a couple of blocks away from USC. Do we know which way it was headed?"

"We're not sure but she thinks that it was heading down the freeway."

There was something about Faith's tone that said she knew more than she was telling. "You think you know where it's going," Buffy said.

"Maybe," said Faith. "Which is why Giles and I are trying to track it down." Again the humor entered her voice. "I guess us Slayers can't stop chasing that truck."

"So you're heading down the freeway. Do you need help?"

"No, we've got it as covered as we can." Faith's voice turned soft. "Actually I need you to do me a favor."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Faith, this really isn't the best time--"

"Please B."

Buffy didn't know whether it was the sadness in her voice or the word 'please' but she decided to shut up and listen. "In a while, you're going to get a call from Xander."

"What about?"

"Doesn't matter. The point is, he will ask you to do something for him. Something very important to him and me."

A vague picture was coming together in Buffy's mind. "This has to do with Robin, right?"

**3:19:33/3:19:34/3:19:35**

Faith knew that she should just tell Buffy what was wrong and risk the consequences. But for some reason, she was paralyzed by the irrational, childish fear that to tell too many people about Robin's condition would somehow seal his fate. It was a dumb reason, but it was instinctual. And, about this, Faith was going to trust her gut.

"There are already too many people whose heads are messed up because of what's happened today," she said, hating how much she sounded like a Watcher. "You're going to get the whole story eventually but for now," she took a deep breath, "just tell me that you'll listen to what he has to say."

There was a long pause at the other end. Then Buffy very gently said, "You know I probably won't be able to do it unless we make it through today."

Faith had known that this was coming but it still hurt. "I know. But it's important that somebody hear it and act appropriately. And even if it wasn't important to him, it is to me."

There was another pause. Faith was sure that Buffy was about to say 'no' when she spoke up. "I'll do it, Faith. Of course I will."

Relief flooded through her. "Thank you, B." For a moment she thought that she was going to cry. "I'll-- I'll call you when we get where were going. Thank you." She hung up with Buffy, and then received an instant message on her voicemail that told her someone from Angel-Slayer had called.

She hit the button on her phone called "A-S." The phone on the other end only rang once before someone picked up. "Fred?"

"It's a little creepy how y'all know who's on the other end without asking."

Despite the situation Faith smiled a little. "Lucky guess. What have you got for us?"

Fred was all business. "The latest photos show the truck changing from the Santa Monica Freeway to Route 10."

"Which way?"

"We're not sure but unless they're taking an extraordinary long way around, they're probably headed west."

Faith rolled her eyes. "We'll change freeways but unless you've picked up the ability to read minds, get a move on with those photos "

"Faith, we've talked about this--"

Faith cut her off. "I know you think Thompson is heading towards Venice and that creepy mansion Holtz used to call home but it's an awfully big reach on a very big hunch. Unless you've got proof positive we're not heading into the Pacific, we're going to pretend we don't know where the truck's going." And after a pause to let this sink in, she added, "Cause we don't."

Fred sighed. "You win. I'll call you when we've got new photos."

"Good. " Faith hung up the phone then turned to Giles. "Next opportunity, we need to get on Route 10."

"Right." Giles didn't take his eyes off the road but she knew that he was thinking. "You know, we haven't given any consideration as to who is driving the truck this time."

"No we haven't." said Faith. "And right now we shouldn't. Odds are when we finally find it, it'll be empty. I doubt whoever's in there is going to be waiting for us."

"But if we do—"

"--we'll deal with it then." Part of Faith knew that she was being short about a legitimate problem but right now she was having a hard time talking civilly to the man who had let Robin--

She forced her mind back to thinking about the task at hand. Even though a small part of her wouldn't be able to do that.

**3:25:49/3:25:50/3:25:51/3:25:52**

Dawn finished looking at the window in the stairwell where a new pane of glass had just been installed. "So this is the new glass that you'll be using." she said turning to the repairman. And even though the man in question was twenty years older, a foot taller and at least eighty pounds heavier than her, he still squirmed under her gaze. Dawn, however, understood that he was more afraid of her firm than her.

"Look, we've talked with Mr. Gunn and we've agreed to replace the windows—" the repairman began.

"No, you don't get it, _sir_,"Dawn said the word sir the way Buffy had once used to refer to Wesley when they first met. "You put in the old windows which worked so well that we nearly got turned to soup. So you'll understand why we're not convinced that these windows will do any better."

Since she had returned to Angel-Slayer Dawn had wanted to get back to work. This abduction experience, even though it had been her idea, hadn't been that bad (and she should know, she got taken prisoner often enough) but she had used the incident to get an hour's rest. After all it had been a very long day and she was only seventeen-- by one calendar anyway. But after a quick rest, she was ready to get back to doing something productive. So when Gunn had asked for somebody to make sure that the Wolfram & Hart building was safe from future attacks, she had volunteered to pitch in and make the place secure. Granted it was unlikely that there would be another attack but you never knew. Evil could be stupid sometimes.

"Look, um, Miss Summers I understand your concerns and we think that we may have been able to relieve them." He indicated the window. "In addition to being shatter-proof and weather resistant this glass has been enchanted to make it virtually impervious to magic and has the capabilities to paralyze most forces that get within a foot of them."

"That's going to make them awfully hard to clean." Dawn muttered. Before the repairman had a chance to react to this, her pager went off. When she checked it, she saw that it was Fred. She sighed. "Walk with me—" she forgot the repairman's name and was forced to glance at his shirt "--Lyle."

She began heading to the stairs to walk the two flights down as she tried to channel the corporate energy that had once filled this building. "Here's what's going to happen. You will replace all the windows in this building." Before Lyle could react, she held up her hand. "You will do so for as little money as possible." By now she was walking briskly up the stairs. "Otherwise we will get as far up your ass as your friendly proctologist. You know we're more than capable of it."

As she turned around to walk up the second flight, she looked at Lyle who was understandably being very quiet. "However, when you do your repairs you will leave one window on the top floor completely unaltered." As she reached the door to her floor, she turned to him and smiled sweetly. "Because if there's another incident like today, that will be the window you will be thrown out of."

And with that Dawn opened the door and walked into the area. She had time to reflect that she was being awfully hostile to a working slob, but she managed to zone out any bad vibes by reminding herself that he worked for a Wolfram & Hart owned company.

She found Fred quickly enough. She was by one of the phone banks with Gunn and Willow, neither of whom looked incredibly happy.

"He's been a big help. Wesley would have died without him." Fred was speaking in that tone she tried not to use about Wes.

"Fred, he was once this firm's boy wonder. Every time he goes to the bathroom, he has an ulterior motive." Gunn was being firm bordering on angry.

"If we let having once been evil be a prerequisite for not trusting them, half the people at this firm wouldn't be working here," Willow pointed out.

Gunn glared at Willow. "All due respect, you don't know this guy, you don't know his track record."

Dawn decided this was a good time to jump in "Excuse me, would someone mind telling me who the hell you're arguing about?"

Fred turned her attention to Dawn. "When Angel, Connor and Wesley were looking for Jasmine they ran into Lindsey McDonald."

It took Dawn a few seconds to remember who Lindsey was (she had only heard him mentioned a few times before) and then she did. "Oh great. So they managed to recruit another familiar face to the dark side."

"No, if you believe him he's fighting for our side now," Gunn said in a tone that said he thought this was as likely as Celine Dion being able to sing in more than one key.

"And I take that this is a subject of-- discussion?" Dawn said with a slight air of sarcasm.

"He says that he has valuable information about what the ultimate end-game of today is," Fred responded.

"We already know what the end-game is. World comes to an end, human race wiped out, yadda yadda yadda." said Dawn.

At this Fred shook her head. "He says that Wolfram & Hart would never back a plan with that as the ultimate result."

This was a news flash. "Isn't evil taking over the world their plan?" she asked, perplexed.

"If you believe Lindsey, evil already controls much of the world," said Willow. "They're invested in spreading evil through humanity, not against it. "

Dawn was going to say she didn't buy it, then thought about what she had heard or gleaned from her time with the villains. Destroying the world had never been mentioned. But if that was the case-- "So what IS the goal?"

"According to Lindsey it involves the release of an evil force--"

"They've already done that!" said Dawn frustrated.

"--from another dimension." finished Fred. "Something that only Jasmine can access."

"How and where?"

Fred and Gunn looked at each other. Fred finally spoke. "That's just it. Lindsey says he'll only tell us what he knows if we guarantee his protection against the senior partners."

"Thus the argument," said Dawn, understanding. "So why this delay?"

Willow took a deep breath. "Angel said he'll only do this if enough people on the board agree to it. We've spent the last twenty minutes tracking everyone down."

"How many have?" Dawn asked even though she was pretty sure of the answer.

"Wesley and Angel said yes. So did Buffy and Lorne. Giles, Faith and Kennedy voted no. " Fred paused. "I vote yes."

Gunn looked ahead defiantly. "No fucking way."

Willow hesitated. Then she sighed. "I agree with Gunn."

Now everyone was looking at Dawn.

"What about Xander and Robin?" Dawn asked, trying to buy some time.

"We can't reach them. And before you talk about absentee ballots, we talked to a majority of the board." said Willow. "Besides, we've spent enough time as it is on this."

Dawn wanted to protest this when she realized that they had been at this a while. Time was running short and a decision had to be made.

She took a deep breath and made her choice.

**3:37:40/3:37:41/3:37:42/3:37:43**

Even though Angel had decided to let the others vote on what to do about Lindsey, and even though he had voted in favor of trusting him, he still wasn't very comfortable with the whole idea. Trusting anyone who worked for Wolfram & Hart was a risky decision under the best of circumstances (which these weren't) and Lindsey had the habit of changing his side like the winds.

But the cold truth was they had all but run out of options. Roderick, the vampire that they had captured earlier that they had been getting what information they had, was basically hollowed out. According to Fred, if they did anymore damage to him, he would fall apart. The people who had attacked Angel and Connor -- thus forcing Lindsey to enter stage left -- were refusing to say anything and they didn't have the time to try and extract information from them. Their only other choices depended on if Faith and Giles could track down the truck or whether or not the people at Angel-Slayer could find the car that Thompson had been driving when he left the warehouse earlier in the afternoon. And since those were very big ifs they had to rely on the one bit of information they had that was solid. In a manner of speaking.

So when his cell rang he found himself, much against his will, hoping that they had made the right decision.

He fumbled for a moment before opening it. "Yeah."

It was Fred. "Angel, we've decided."

"And?"

There was a pause. "Make the deal."

Angel cursed himself for feeling relief. "All right."

"Angel." Fred hesitated. "Just because we say we're going to offer him protection doesn't mean we have to."

It took Angel several seconds to get over the fact that Fred had just said something like that. "That's not how we do things."

"You're saying if our situation was reversed he wouldn't do the same thing?" Fred said.

Angel thought-- really thought-- about it. "We can't do this."

"All right. Forget I said it." She hung up.

Angel turned towards Lindsey and Wes. "We've agreed to help you."

"That's all you talked about?" said Lindsey with the suggestion of a smile.

Angel put on his best poker face. "Some of the others were pissed about this."

"You were talking about trying to fuck me over?" Lindsey spoke so casually that it took a few seconds to Angel to realize what he had just said. Lindsey had a smug look on his face. "Don't take it too hard. Situations reversed I'd have done the same."

"No you wouldn't try."

Angel whirled around -- even with his good hearing he hadn't noticed Buffy and Spike approaching.

Buffy had a perfectly blank face as well. "You'd do it. And lie to our face."

"Ah Miss Summers." said Lindsey cheerfully. "I see that my reputation precedes me."

Buffy walked right up to him. "Yes it does." In one motion, she reached in and grabbed Lindsey by the collar of his leather jacket. "Let's be clear. If we didn't need your help I'd gladly give you a thorough ass-kicking myself." She pushed him back. "Don't screw us over Mr. McDonald. You won't like us when we're angry."

Lindsey straightened, apparently not bothered at all by the last couple of minutes.

"Now tell us what you know." Buffy snarled.

Lindsey turned around so that he was looking at all of them. "As you are no doubt aware the walls between dimensions are thinner around Los Angeles." He looked at Angel. "That's one of the reasons why portals are easier to open."

"Yes," said Angel neutrally.

"Many of these alternate dimensions are inhabited by demons and other monsters. Others are very similar to this one with only minor differences-- say Jefferson is on the five dollar bill instead of Lincoln, or Eisenhower is on the dime instead of FDR."

"Or the world has no shrimp. Get to the point," said Buffy.

"These dimensions exist on different physical planes. The same people can exist in many different dimensions simultaneously. If, however, two of these same people from different dimensions should interact--poof!" Lindsey clapped his hand.

"Both people would disappear," said Wesley.

"Not merely disappear," Lindsey said calmly. "Both would be erased from existence. Everything and every action that was made over their lifetime would never have happened."

The magnitude of this was staggering. Spike reacted first. "Bollocks. That's bloody science fiction. It's that stupid Jimmy Stewart movie."

" No it is not. Call your physicist. She should know all about this theory."

"Hah!" exclaimed Buffy. "Theory! You don't have any idea if it works!"

"I know that it works, Miss Summers" Lindsey was sounding even more self-satisfied "because it was a major project of the science department. It was rarely done and when it was on people who wouldn't be missed."

"Granting this is true-- which I'm not sold on-- who are they planning to eliminate?" asked Angel.

"I don't know exactly who." said Lindsey. He reached into his pocket. "But I can narrow it down." He pulled out a piece of paper. "Seven names. All of them you know. All of who would give evil a big leg up if they had never been."

Angel took the paper. Buffy still wasn't convinced: "I've got another question. How exactly are they going to do this in the first place?"

"That's where it gets tricky. Getting access to these dimensions isn't easy. You need to know someone who has the ability to navigate temporal boundaries. And there aren't many of those in this dimension."

"And Jasmine is one of them." said Spike.

"No." Everyone looked at Lindsey in surprise. "But she is the one capable of controlling the one who can."

"So where is this creature?" asked Wesley.

"Right now?" Lindsey said. "Santa Monica."

"He's hiding there?"

Lindsey gave another cocky smile. "No, he's been in plain sight the whole time."

"Come on!" said the vampire urgently "Those people could come back any time!"

The other vampire looked up and shot him a condescending look. "Those idiots haven't been gone for hours. They have no idea that its here." He returned to his search.

"What makes you so sure they didn't find it anyway?"

"A, They don't know where to look for it, B, it was well hidden, C, shut up!"

The two vampires searched in silence for thirty seconds before the second one said: "Eureka!"

"What? You told me we were going to Baldwin Hills!"

"You are truly an idiot, Howard, but that's beside the point."

He held up the cylinder that he had found under the second layer of paneling in the floor of the diner. "We've got it."

Howard walked over to his comrade. "Sure that's it?"

"I don't know. You want to open it and find out?"

"Shit, no!" said Howard, recoiling at the very idea.

"All right then. Now we have to meet Harmony in an hour."

The two of them left the diner-- which had been less than two blocks from the house Holtz had trained those who had joined in his quest for vengeance-- carrying something that even if Buffy and her friends had found they wouldn't have recognized. Only Angel, Gunn and Fred might have known what it was and even they had never gotten in a close look.

It was a Recitian urn.

**3:48:11/3:48:12/3:48:13/3:48:14**

At this hour traffic on both the freeway and Route 10 was still very light. So finding out where they were going was more a problem of the intelligence rather then the traffic. Considering the resources afforded them, it was inevitable that Angel-Slayer would locate the truck-- it was on a side street off Venice Boulevard. It hadn't moved in five minutes (according to Fred's information).And that was what had Giles' mental alarm system going off. It seemed that he and Faith had found it far too easily.

He knew this was a foolish assumption. It hadn't been easy finding the truck it had just felt that way because they hadn't been doing the work. And it was very likely that at some point the driver would leave his vehicle.

Nevertheless, as he and Faith got out of the car, he couldn't help but think something smelled off about.

"Well lookee here." said Faith. "Not a great white hope but a big black truck. There had better be some great toy surprise inside that thing after all this."

Giles was concerned whether or not Faith was just fronting after the last few hours. However, he knew better than to inquire. That part of their relationship was severely damaged if not stone dead. So he decided to focus on the task at hand. "Does this seem right to you?" he asked as they walked to the truck.

"What, because an expensive, conspicuous vehicle has been left completely unguarded in a city where cars get hotwired every five minutes?" Faith said dryly. "No, everything seems hunky-dory."

By now the two of them had reached the truck. Without speaking the two of them began walking around the truck, Faith on one side, him on the other. Giles wasn't entirely sure what they would do if someone was actually in the car but that never became an issue. The two of them managed to circle the truck without incident.

"That accomplished a lot," said Faith. "Well, now I suppose we should probably see if we can get any information from the truck itself."

"I suppose," Giles said.

"Of course, it's probably wired with explosives." said Faith.

Giles looked at Faith in alarm. "Faith, they've been driving that vehicle all day."

"I know that." said Faith.

"They used it to transport Willow and Spike."

"I know that too," she said indignantly.

"I doubt they even know how to do such a thing."

"So there's no way that it's wired to explode"

Giles thought about it. "No, of course it's wired to explode." he sighed.

Now Faith thought for a second. "Of course, it'll probably only explode if we open one of the doors."

Giles thought about this. "That would make sense," he admitted.

"If I was to, say, shatter the windshield, we could probably get in that way."

This seemed to be the way to go. Yet he had the feeling that there was a bear-trap in this idea. Before he could voice his concerns, however, Faith had jumped on to the hood.

She paused, counted to three, and then kicked the windshield in. Without thinking Giles tensed-- but nothing happened.

"You know I'm getting real disappointed by the way things keep--" Faith never finished the sentence. Instead, she jumped off the truck a split second before the bolt of energy hit the truck.

Giles barely had time to react before the world exploded.

**3:54:09/3:54:10/3:54:11**

"All right, here's how its going to work." They had agreed to let Angel do the talking when it came to dealing with Lindsey. "Buffy, Wesley and myself are going to try and track down this demon that you say has this power over time and space."

"First, he does have this power. Second, how are you going to find him? I didn't give you his address." The smugness in Lindsey's voice was becoming irritating.

Angel walked until he was less than six inches away from Lindsey. "First, don't you dare take that tone." Lindsey had the sense to shut up. "Second, I know the demon you're talking about. And because I know the last person that knew where he was, we have a very good idea where he's cooped up. Our organization is very efficient that way." Now he allowed himself a smile. "But then you know that first-hand."

Wesley decided to step in. "In any case Spike will be taking you and Connor to the Hyperion where we can afford better security."

This was news to Spike. "Hey when did I become the bloody hall monitor?"

Buffy turned to him. "We need someone with muscle and we can't afford to have anyone else distracted. Could you please just-- "

"All right." Spike decided not to argue.

Connor, however, did. "Why are you doing this? I've proven I can take care of myself."

"You misunderstand." said Wesley. "You're going to be helping to protect…" Wes did not want to use this name "…Lindsey." When Connor hesitated, he added: "You've been doing a great job so far but you can help us more by keeping him-- and yourself -- safe."

Connor mulled this over. Finally, he walked over to Lindsey. "How are we getting to the hotel?" he asked. (All the various groups comings and goings had left those that were left with only one car-- Angel's)

Angel looked somewhat relieved that this had passed. "When we called to get confirmation on Lindsey's info, we got them to send you a car and a driver. They should be able to pick you up in about five minutes."

Buffy looked at her watch. "If we have any chance to stop this thing, we should get moving."

"One moment." Angel pulled Spike aside. "You've got your soul back," he said quietly.

"Yeah." Spike responded just as quietly.

"The chip's out of your head."

"Yeah."

"You can make your own decisions."

"Always could."

"If this somehow goes wrong" Angel looked towards Lindsey "kill him."

Spike looked surprised for a split second. Then he gave a small smile. "No problem." He walked back towards Lindsey and Connor.

Angel walked towards Wes and Buffy as they began to walk back to Angel's car. However, Buffy seemed concerned. "What's the problem?" he asked.

"Giles and Faith are probably closer to Santa Monica than we are. I've been trying to reach them but no ones picking up."

There was, of course, a perfectly good reason Giles couldn't answer his cell phone. When the explosion had knocked him down, his landing had crushed it.

Not that Giles could have answered it in any case. He was busy trying to stay conscious. Getting to his feet seemed out of the question and he couldn't see Faith anywhere.

In fact the only thing he could really see was a pair of neat brown loafers that had walked into his line of sight. He tried to look up but he couldn't do it. Not that he had to. He knew who the shoes belonged to. He knew even before the owner spoke in a dry, victorious tone.

"Hello Ripper."

**3:59:57/3:59:58/3:59:59/4:00:00**


	17. 4PM to 5PM

Chapter 17

The following takes place between 4 PM and 5 PM on the day of the Autumnal Equinox

Faith had sensed rather than seen the bolt of energy when it was fired and her reflexes had been able to save her from being cooked in the explosion. They were not, however, quick enough to stop her from being propelled into the wall of a house. If she hadn't had Slayer strength, her skull would have been smashed against the bricks. As it was, she had a bastard of a headache and was having a great deal of trouble keeping herself conscious and in the world..

_Now I know how it feels to get hit by a truck,_ Faith thought to herself. _Okay, systems check. Legs are still working. Good, I'm not paralyzed. Arms-- left one's a little stiff but nothing's broken. Time for the big one._

She managed to get to her feet. As she rose the throbbing in her head lifted some of her mental fog-- and she remembered. "Giles!" She whirled around, ignoring the pain that followed.

Giles was lying on the ground a few feet away from the smoking pile of rubble that was now the black truck. If he was conscious Faith couldn't tell. For that matter, she couldn't even be sure that Giles was still breathing. She thought it was likely, however, because the man who was standing over him was gloating. And even though she had never met him before, she was pretty sure that she was looking at Ethan Rayne. She was a little surprised—he wasn't your typical villainous type. Tell the truth, he seemed kind of ordinary.

"Well Rupert, looks like the game is over." Ethan said as he walked around Giles. "Can't say I'm surprised it came out this way. But then you never had the stomach for this."

Faith's hearing was very good but she still had to strain to make out Giles's response: "Neither do you."

The grin on Ethan's face never wavered. "I'd watch my tone Rupert. You see, unlike you, I have dirtied my hands." He looked even more shark-like as he came back to start. "I've graduated from doing mischief at a distance. Since this whole plan was launched I've killed six people-- one of them just this morning."

He then kicked Giles in the small of his back. "I must say that I was disappointed by the experience."

Faith was less than twenty feet away from Ethan and he still didn't seem to have noticed her. She began to think that she might be able to sneak up on him completely unawares when suddenly he spoke. "A huge explosion and you're still standing. Slayer, you'll be a woman soon."

_No point in trying to be stealthy now,_ she thought to herself. "So you're the notorious Ethan Rayne. "

"And you're the infamous Faith," Ethan said coolly. "You're far more attractive than the other one." He smiled. "Shame we never met before. I have a feeling, under different circumstances, we could have been stardust."

Faith found herself wanting to gag. "Maybe. Then again I was never much into you British types. You never know how to show a girl a good time."

"Really?"

"Yeah. For the most part you're all talk and no—"

Before she could finish the sentence Ethan moved. Fast. Faith's instincts took over and she hit the ground. A split second later she felt something whiz over her head followed by a loud boom and the smell of wood burning.

"Used to be like that," said Ethan serenely. "Now I tend to let my actions speak for themselves."

Faith looked behind her. One of the trees behind her was ablaze. There weren't many trees or houses around to catch fire, which was good, but she wasn't very far from the wreck of a truck which was still leaking gasoline. The situation could literally get more explosive soon, but at the moment she couldn't worry about that.

She got to her feet slowly as all the pain came back twofold-- something Ethan didn't miss. "Feeling all right? Need an aspirin?"

Faith wanted to wipe the smug look of his face. Problem was, she didn't think that she could run fast enough before he hit her with a blast of energy. She would have to play this very carefully.

"Heard what you said about killing people," she said almost casually. "I didn't care much for it the first time either."

"So I've heard," Ethan responded.

"Second time I got off on it. No problem." She began walking towards Ethan. "Spent the next four years trying to get the taste out of my mouth."

Ethan didn't say anything, choosing instead to fire another bolt of magic. This one Faith managed to dodge easily and continued moving forward "I'd watch where you point that thing. Otherwise, we all go to the moon." Ethan didn't respond but he didn't fire off another shot. "You may have killed people but that doesn't make you a big man." She was less than ten feet away.

Ethan looked smug. "You're right. I may not have what it takes to be a killer but I've still got something you will never have."

"Yeah? What's that?" And suddenly Faith realized that she had been so focused on Ethan that she hadn't bothered to pay attention to her flanks. Oops.

"A bunch of vampires to kick your ass."

"Oh crap," she said as she got ready for another drag'em out brawl.

And as the fighting started, Ethan smiled and said: "If there's one thing I can't stand it's a fair fight."

He turned: "Now as I was saying before I…" Ethan realized that he hadn't been the only one distracted by the confrontation with Faith.

Giles had managed to disappear.

**4:09:40/4:09:41/4:09:42/4:09:43**

Xander knew it was very stupid of him to shut off his cell phone in the middle of an apocalypse but when the doctor had returned from running their first set of tests on Robin it had become clear to him very quickly that the former principal needed all the support he could get.

So he had turned off his cell and listened as the doctor gave Robin the results. Though the doctor had been quick to emphasize that it was still too early to tell anything for certain, the news still was not good. Xander had spent enough time in hospitals over the last seven years and understood enough of the medical jargon. And even if he hadn't, he had heard three important words: toxicity, widespread and lethal. The plain truth, Robin Wood was probably measuring his life hour by hour.

Xander had realized it was probably best if he shut up, so he had stayed there silently until Robin told him gently that he needed a few minutes alone. Xander had walked out into the hall and spent the next couple of minutes grieving, partly to deal with his pain but mostly because he knew that he wouldn't have time to do it later.

So he had—and then he checked his voicemail. Seven messages. Four from Fred, three from Faith. Whose wrath did he want to risk? He sighed and picked Fred.

She picked up after one ring. "This better be you, Xander." The voice at the other end sounded pissed-- which was a bad sign. Fred rarely got overly angry even under the sharpest stress.

"It's kind of eerie how you did that," he said trying to keep it light.

Fred was not amused. "Christ, Xander, I've been trying to get in touch with you for the last hour. Where the hell have you been?"

"At Kildare Hospital watching Robin die." He regretted saying it the second he finished the sentence, but knew that it was the only excuse that Fred and the others would tolerate.

"What happened?" Fred asked after a long pause.

"He was poisoned earlier today," Xander said coolly. "He tried to brave it out for the good of the group but he's paying the price for it now."

There was a pause on the other end as Fred's compassionate nature warred with the logical part of her mind. "I am so sorry," she finally said. "I really am." She paused. "Is there anything that can be done?"

"I don't know. They're going to try and inject him with antitoxins and try filtering his blood or something. But the odds aren't good."

"You know, we have access to some pretty good medical facilities in our science department," said Fred. "I could send some of them over—"

Xander was appalled that he would have to bring this conversation back to reality. "That would be good Fred, but we do need to deal with the apocalypse," he said, hating himself.

"Damn it, you're right." Another pause. Fred was slowly coming back too. "Still I can probably do it. I'm going to need to send some people out to protect you."

"Whoa, back it up there a minute. " said Xander. "Not that I mind the special treatment but why do I need the bodyguards?"

"That's why I called you. We think that we've found out what Harmony and Ethan have been going to all this trouble to raise Jasmine for."

"Yeah, I know. To bring about the end of the world."

"No, not end it, change it. Remove a person that could be the difference between which side is in charge."

Xander considered this. "Do we know which person?"

"That's just it." Fred paused. "It might be you."

**4:16:27/4:16:28/4:16:29**

Fred knew that she had gotten Xander's attention. Unfortunately the hard part came next-- describing what Harmony and Ethan had planned without sounding like a physics geek. Which would be especially difficult because that was what she was.

"How on earth could my death change the balance?" asked Xander. "In case you've forgotten I don't have superpowers."

"No, but you did help save the world on any number of occasions. If you hadn't existed, think what might have happened."

Xander pondered her words. "Clarence, I'm not following you," he said.

"Okay, here's the deal. You know that there are other dimensions which are realities like ours but just a little different?"

"Yeah."

"Really? I didn't know you knew quantum physics."

"No, but I had an ex-demon for a girlfriend who knew all about this kind of think." Xander paused. "This alternate world wouldn't have no shrimp by any chance?"

For once Fred was at a loss for words. She decided to move on. "Anyway, in these dimensions, alternate versions of you can exist. Both versions exist independent of each other." She paused.

"Keep going."

"If somehow two of these realities were ever to merge and two versions of the same person were to meet, the reaction could theoretically be similar to matter and anti-matter colliding. Both versions would be erased as if neither had existed."

Xander took this in. "Theoretically? You mean it hasn't ever been done?"

Fred wasn't very sure about it either. "Technically speaking this isn't commonly accepted dogma by any of the major physicists or even some of the minor ones. But there are some who believe it." Then she paused. "And we're pretty sure that one of them worked for Wolfram & Hart."

"My, we have our fingers in a lot of portals." said Xander. "But why did they have to raise Jasmine? I didn't think she has that kind of power."

"According to our source, Jasmine is just part of the equation. One of the things she's going to do is work with a demon to do the temporal bend."

"Do we know which demon it is?" asked Xander. Fred said the only name that made sense. "Not him! Oh for crying out loud, this is a damn college reunion."

"You're more right then you know." said Fred carefully. "The man who gave us the information is Lindsey McDonald."

"Who the hell-- holy shit!" Xander said as he realized. "The lawyer with the plastic hand is back?"

"He's got a real one now and he seems to be using it to help us."

"Don't trust him for a second, any of you."

Fred decided now was not the time to tell Xander that they were providing Lindsey sanctuary. Instead she decided to focus on the information he had provided. "He's done nothing but help us so far. He tried to protect the hospital, he helped save Connor and he told us about the big plan."

"And such a brilliant plan it is. Two demons get together to warp the temporal fabric in order to remove me from existence."

"Or Buffy. Or Willow. Or Giles or Angel." Fred explained. "He thinks it could be one of seven people, all of whom work here."

Xander considered all this. Finally he sighed. "Do we have any idea where all this is going to go down?"

"Somewhere in Santa Monica. Buffy and the others are on their way there."

"Fine. Send the protection. I don't know how much good it'll do me, but I'll take it."

"You're going to stay with Robin." It wasn't a question.

"I promised Faith."

"I've got to go." She hesitated. "Give Robin our prayers."

Xander didn't respond. He merely hung up.

And even though she had no time, Fred spared a few seconds to pray to whatever gods there were for the man who was dying for their cause.

**4:22:38/4:22:39/4:22:40/4:22:41**

By all rights Giles should have been dead. He had been standing less than ten feet from the truck when it had exploded and he didn't have the superhuman strength of a Slayer or a vampire. What had saved him was his own research.

Hours ago, when Angel had asked him to try and come up with a counter-spell to Ethan's magic barrier, he had needed two resources: some of the ancient Poloxian magic spells and a Celtic charm—one which was capable of putting up a small wall around him to help counteract the magic that Ethan had probably put up. The charm had done its job more than four hours ago but Giles had never bothered to take it out of his pocket. His absent-mindedness had saved his life.

He was hurt just the same. Nobody stands ten feet away from an exploding truck and walks away with just a headache. His clothes were badly burned but had stopped short of his flesh. One of his arms had been twisted so hard that it was almost certainly broken. One of his ankles was broken and hurt bad enough to make walking basically impossible. But the worst had not revealed itself until now. As Ethan had stood gloating over him, he had become aware of a ringing in his ears. Over the past twenty minutes it had been getting louder and louder until he could hear almost nothing. He hoped that his deafness was only temporary but he was well aware that it would probably get him killed. An elephant with a cold could sneak up on him and he wouldn't know it.

The only reason that he had managed to escape death at the hands of Ethan was that while Ethan's attention had been focused on Faith, Giles had managed to invoke an invisibility chant. He had then managed to crawl all the way back to his car. He didn't know why Ethan still hadn't located him but he could think of three reasons: That, despite his new powers Ethan was still an amateur had hunting a person down; Ethan was so busy focusing on his evil plan that he had decided to give up the search for Giles. Or that Ethan knew exactly where he was and was toying with him, and that the only reason Giles didn't know it was because he couldn't hear.

As much as he hoped that it was reason one, Giles was almost positive that it was reason three. Ethan had always loved to play games and, given his advantages, this was one he was probably enjoying immensely.

But Giles didn't have a lot of options. His cell phone had been crushed in the explosion. Not that it would have helped him much in his current condition. He probably couldn't drive without crippling himself further and, in any case, that would mean abandoning Faith who was still fighting her way through a host of demons. All it seemed he could do was try and remember some of the magic that he had learned earlier today and hope that it--

He was cut off mid-thought as a huge hand lifted him to his feet and threw him on the hood of the car. He didn't have to hear his voice to know that it was Ethan Rayne. He couldn't dodge as Ethan fired a bolt of magic at his leg. His world became a blur of agony.

He was glad that he couldn't hear his own scream.

**4:28:16/4:28:17/4:28:18**

As Faith finished dusting the last of the vampires that Ethan had sicced on her, she heard a yell of pain. And even though she had never heard him shout like that, she instantly knew who it was.

Ignoring all the aches and pains which had multiplied as she had fought through five extra tough vampires, she managed to run past the wreckage of the truck to the source of the sound.

This time she was less than ten feet away from Ethan when he spotted her this time.

"If you want to kill Rupert, keep coming." The former Watcher-turned-Chaos-worshipper-turned-master-sorcerer was standing two feet away from the hood of a car with Giles sprawled on it. His hand was glowing as it had before.

There was only one way to play this and she knew it. "You want to kill Giles I'm not going to cry about it," Faith said calmly.

Ethan didn't turn but he seemed surprised. "My, you really are a cool customer. I didn't know you were that dark."

"Let's just say that the man hasn't done a heck of a lot to make me want to save him." Faith stood as still as she could. "He's lied to me, put people I care about in danger and nearly gotten me killed." She gave a small smile. "And that's just today."

Ethan's face gave nothing away but he seemed surprised. "Well, what do you know? There's some of the old Ripper still in there after all."

"Don't get so damn cocky, Ethan. Just because I don't care about him living or dying doesn't mean I'm not still gonna kick your ass."

"Really?" Again Ethan moved fast. Because she was a lot closer, the energy bolt singed her clothes. "And do you honestly think that I'm going to let you come near enough to do it?"

"Hey I managed to dust your little death squad without breaking a sweat." Actually Faith was sweating pretty heavily and Ethan could see it.

"Well maybe you managed to handle my little wrecking crew but I still got a lot of magical energy to burn." Ethan began walking towards her. "And unlike you I don't have to get close to you to kill you."

Then Faith saw something out of the corner of her eye. She tried to give nothing away. "So we're at a standoff."

"No." Now both of Ethan's hands were glowing. "You're not going to be standing long enough to do anything. In fact for you the game is just about o—"He gasped and collapsed on the ground.

As he fell, Faith saw Giles standing behind him with a huge, bloody shard of glass in his hand. Then he also fell to the ground.

"Giles!" Faith ran over to him. "Where did he get you?" There was no response. "Giles!"

"Call 911," he muttered, clearly in pain.

"Where'd he get you?" she asked.

"I've probably hit an artery. If he bleeds out, we'll never know what he does. Call 911!"

Giles' voice was disconnected but firm. Faith pulled out her cell which was, miraculously, still working. She didn't dial 911, though, instead she hit the button that contacted the medical units of Angel-Slayer.

Before the voice on the other end finished their first word Faith was speaking: "This is Faith. I have two people in critical condition. One of them is gonna bleed out unless you get here NOW!"

**4:34:17/4:34:18/4:34:19/4:34:20**

Given what had happened to it that morning Gunn was somewhat reluctant to leave the Wolfram & Hart building to take a security team to the Hyperion in order to guard-- no, they were being serious -- Lindsey McDonald. But the fact was he didn't trust Lindsey farther than he could throw him (something he wouldn't mind doing if given a chance), he wanted to keep as close an eye on the man as he could. So Gunn had taken a security detail back to their old home base.

Even though they were no longer using the Hyperion as headquarters, Angel-Slayer was still looking after the hotel. They had had the place painted until it looked better than it had while they had owned it. In addition, they had an updated security system when they had the place rewired, remodeled and refined it enough to consider it a safe house.

Or at least, Gunn thought as he saw their car drive up to the hotel, relatively safe.

The back door of the car opened and out came three men: one whom Gunn had never seen before, one who didn't remember seeing him and one that he wished he had never seen. Deliberately, he decided to talk with the one he knew the least.

"I take it you're Spike," he said to the man with bleached blond hair and the black leather coat.

"And you are Charles Gunn." The vampire started walking to the lobby without any attempt to be friendly. "And this fine establishment is where you intend keep us safe."

"You got a problem with this place?"

"If this is your idea of safety," said Spike sarcastically. "Why don't you just paint a bloody bulls-eye on the front door?"

"You don't understand. Only the finest accommodations will do for those formerly affiliated with evil." Gunn matched Spike's sarcastic tone.

"You referring to me or the other bloodsucker?" Spike gestured behind him to Lindsey.

Gunn found his lips forming a smile despite himself. "Well there is one thing in your favor." he said. "You have a soul. I'm not so sure about him."

"I hope you're not trying to get under my skin," said the subject of their sarcasm. "Those kind of jokes were old long before I went to work for Wolfram & Hart."

Gunn's smile disappeared. He walked back until he was right next to Lindsey. "Listen up, wise ass, we voted to keep you safe and that's what I'm going to do." Before the lawyer could react Gunn elbowed him in the stomach hard.

Lindsey doubled over.

"Of course there's safe and there's _safe_. Clear?"

"Crystal," he managed to grunt out.

"Good." He walked over to the counter where a Slayer, Patrice, was waiting. "Take him upstairs. The least accessible room that you can find. No windows, one entrance." The two of them nodded and came from around the counter. "Oh, and if he uses any magic on you, you have our permission to go medieval on his ass."

Now Lindsey was starting to get pissed. "Crap, how many times do I have to tell you I'm on your side?"

"It's not that we don't trust you," Patrice said as they walked upstairs, "it's just— No that's exactly it."

"Couldn't have put it better," said Spike, as they went-- Patrice on one side of Lindsey, Spike on the other.

Connor walked over to Gunn. "You know who I am."

"You're Angel's son." Gunn decided to state the facts without going into an explanation as to how this was possible (mainly because he was foggy on the details himself)

"And according to everybody I've talked to I had nothing to do with any of the prophecies that are taking place today."

"As far as we know, that's right."

"Then why do so many of these undead people care what happens to me?"

That was a good question. Gunn decided to go with the only answer that they had. "Because there is at least one prophecy that you play an important role in," he said. "And it involves the demon that Harmony and Jasmine are trying to get their hands on."

**4:41:18/4:41:19/4:41:20**

Fred's normal nervous energy combined with adrenaline, from dealing with the high stress situations that were par for the course, could keep her going strong for days. After nearly sixteen hours of being in charge of Angel-Slayer and being at the center of seemingly every crisis, however, she was finally beginning to reach the limits of her endurance.

So, even though her being on a caffeine high was probably a nightmare to some people, Fred was in the middle of her fourth cup of coffee when Dawn came running up to her. "Fred, we could have a problem."

_Yeah, cause we haven't had one of those for a few minutes_, Fred thought to herself. Aloud she said, "Who?"

"Faith just called. She and Giles finally managed to run down Ethan Rayne."

"Oh boy. How bad are they hurt?"

Dawn hesitated. Fred got a good look at her. Though she was trying to hide it, the teenager seemed a little more rattled then usual. Finally she spoke: "There was some kind of explosion. Giles was hurt pretty bad."

"Is he all right?"

"Faith isn't sure. She and Giles are headed to one of our med facilities." Dawn managed to gather herself. "But that isn't the only trouble they've got."

Fred mentally calculated the things that could have gone wrong. "What happened to Rayne?"

"Giles stabbed him. "

That was one she hadn't thought of. "Is Ethan still alive?" Fred asked as she started walking back towards the center of operations.

Dawn walked with her. "Yeah. But Faith doesn't know what the odds are that he'll live or, if he does, what he will tell us."

"Great." Fred stopped at one of the desks and put her hand on the bridge of her nose. "When it rains, it pours." She paused. "I once thought that referred to meteorological phenomena based on escalating climates but I now see how it applies to this job too."

Dawn looked puzzled. "Isn't capturing Ethan a good thing?"

"Catching him was easy. Holding onto him will be the problem," Fred sighed. "And we've already got our hands full of magic-wielding desperados."

"Considering what happened earlier I'm pretty sure that catching Ethan wasn't easy." said Dawn. "But I see your point."

"Buffy, Angel and Wesley must be nearly at Santa Monica by now. We don't know what kind of mess we're sending them into and they don't have any backup."

Dawn seemed puzzled. "Excuse me but aren't Buffy and Angel still Buffy and Angel? They were both winners of the Undead Butt-Kicking Contest seven years running."

"Yeah, and up until today I would have picked them to win any fight. But after what's happened…" Fred shook her head. "I hope to God they can handle it. We're in a shitload of trouble if they can't."

4**:47:33/4:47:34/4:47:35/4:47:36**

Wesley had never thought that he would have ever been relieved to see the mansion that had been Holtz's headquarters for his brief stint in LA, but crises made you find gratitude in the strangest places.

Or maybe he was just grateful to get out of the awkward box of silence that had been their car for the past forty minutes. Which had been because nobody in the car wanted to mention why Wesley was the one who knew how to get where they were going. He knew that he had asked to have his memory restored but he could have lived without remembering his betrayal of Angel-- and everyone else.

Still it could have been worse. Connor could have been with them.

"Oh man," Buffy said as she walked around her side of the car to get her first look at the place. "Why is it the people that we're fighting always get the really neat looking places to live?"

Angel looked at Buffy stunned. "This from someone who now works out of a multi-million dollar office building?"

Buffy didn't appear at all chagrined. "You gotta remember that at Sunnydale the main headquarters for good was my house and, as much as I loved the place, the windows broke way too easy and it wasn't made to sleep twenty-five."

Angel took this in. "The Hyperion had sixty rooms and a swimming pool." he said.

"If we could focus on the business at hand," Wesley interrupted. "We don't know what we're going to find here."

"If we're going to find anything," said Buffy. "Let me just be sure I understand our reasoning. We think that this Mah-jong—"

"Sahjhan." said Wesley automatically.

"-- is the demon capable of performing a temporal bend and bringing down general wackiness. The last person to know his location was Justine because she was the person who trapped him in one of those special urns."

"That's right," said Angel.

"And you think that having and made all the new friends that she did over the last few months, Justine would put this very valuable artifact in her old stomping grounds?"

"What makes you so sure she wouldn't?" asked Wesley. "Justine didn't have a family. No friends to speak off. This may have been the only place that she ever considered home. Certainly it was the only place that gave her a reason to go on." Wesley found himself stunned that he was speaking sympathetically of the woman whose name he had cursed for a very long time. "If there's any place she thought was safe, this was it."

Buffy considered this: "Say you're right. You think that she would be stupid enough to leave it unguarded?"

"Doubtless, there will be traps." said Wesley. "And it's probably not going to be easy to find. But this is our best chance of finding Sahjhan and we have to take it. Now let's go."

Buffy looked like she was going to argue some more. However, after a few seconds thought, she shut up and began walking towards the mansion. Angel and Wesley quickly followed.

When she reached the door, Angel shouted: "Hold it!" and ran past her. "Not going to fall for the same trick twice. This time we do this smart."

Buffy seemed a little puzzled but Wesley understood. "All right, get ready. Who knows what trick they'll do this time?

He and Buffy stood on one side of the archway, Angel stood on the other.

"One," Angel said. "Two… Three." He pulled the door open.

No arrow came flying out the door, nor did any other projectiles. Angel waited a second, then stepped in front of the door. Still nothing. "Well, they're not consistent."

There was a barrier, though, as Angel found out when he tried to enter. "Looks like I'm not getting in this house. It's up to both of you."

The two of them eyed the door with more trepidation—unlike Angel, a bullet or an arrow could kill them. But they didn't have much choice in the matter.

Buffy went in first, partly because she could recover faster if she got hit first, but mostly because she was and always would be a leader. There were still no bullets, arrows or stones. Wesley followed her at a cautious distance.

Buffy proceeded very slowly through the hallway. "If this were a movie," she said as she moved, "there would be some kind of trip wire in the hall or on the floor."

Wesley moved slowly behind her keeping a small distance. "And an axe would fall from the ceiling and chop off your head."

"Okay, first of all, what movies have you been watching and second of all, thanks a lot for the imagery."

"Hey, you're the one who started it."

"Yes, but we're in an old mansion looking for a demon, not in a cave in Egypt looking for the Holy Grail."

By then the two of them had reached a staircase. Buffy looked around. "Well they aren't going to kill us in the hall with a lead pipe," she said. "So the question is do we look upstairs or downstairs?"

Wesley looked up the staircase and then into the main room of the mansion. Neither seemed to be occupied. "I don't know, but whatever happens we're not splitting up. It would make it far too easy to divide and conquer."

"You give us too little credit." As Wesley whirled around, he realized that he had forgotten something very vital about Holtz's mansion. It had a very large basement. Large enough to train a battalion—which was what appeared to be confronting them right now. "We can conquer you right now."

The man who was speaking-- and Wesley was pretty sure that was what he was-- looked formidable. So did the seven people who emerged from the basement. And the six on the stairwell.

"Many have tried but none have succeeded." Buffy was speaking bravely. "What makes you think that you can?"

"Because," said a thirtyish woman with a very large knife. "I don't think you've ever faced an army of people before."

Angel watched the scene in front of him unfold shocked. However, he realized he wasn't helpless-- he had his cell phone.

But just as he reached for it he heard a mean voice say: "Don't even think about it."

He turned around to see five very large demons standing less than three feet away. One of them stepped forward. "It's a beautiful day in the fucking neighborhood," the male said. "Beautiful day for an ass-whomping."

That was all that he said before they charged him.

From still further way, a man in a suit watched things unfold. As soon as the fighting began, he took out his own cell phone and dialed a number.

Harmony picked up her phone. "Yeah." A smile crept over her face. "They are fully occupied." Pause. "Fine. Then we're going to proceed. Keep us informed." She hung up, then turned to the three vampires standing around the urn. "It's time to kick it up a notch. Cut him loose."

One of the vampires hesitated, then pulled the lid off the urn. A huge puff of yellowish smoke emerged, accompanied by a large roar of triumph. Seconds later, a huge and (in Harmony's opinion) very ugly demon was standing there.

"It's about time. I was starting to get a cramp," said Sahjhan.

**4:59:57/4:59:58/4:59:59/5:00:00**


	18. 5PM to 6PM

Chapter 18

The following takes place between 5 pm and 6 pm on the day of the Autumnal Equinox

Understandably Sahjhan spent a good minute stretching his arms and legs. Then he looked around and examined his surroundings-- a deserted movie set inhabited by six vampires, three people and a former goddess trapped in a young woman's body. He considered this for a while ad then spoke: "Not that I'm not grateful for being released from that glamorized Mason jar, but I think I'm entitled to a few details."

"We expected as much." Harmony took up a business-like tone. "We're just outside one of the old lots outside of MGM. And as far as we can tell, you've been stuck in that little vase for just over a year and a half."

Sahjhan pondered her words. "Felt more like two." He started walking. "Well if that's it I'll be on my way."

"Whoa-whoa-whoa." Harmony walked back in front of him. "Little respect for the people who got you out."

The demon fixed her with a stare that would have caused some demons to run away in fear. The old Harmony would have been one such vampire and it took a lot for her to remain cool.

"Yeah, well, thanks for rubbing the lamp and setting me free, but this genie don't grant no wishes. Step aside, lady."

Harmony dropped any pretense of being nice. "All right. How about some respect for the people who brought you back into the world and who can take your ass out if we choose too."

This time Sahjhan threw a punch that would have knocked her across the lot-- if the demon had been corporeal. Instead all Harmony felt was a mild breeze as his fist passed through her face.

"It's a good thing you're not solid," said Cordelia/Jasmine sweetly. "Take it from me, a punch in the face can absolutely ruin your make-up."

Now Sahjhan took a good look at her. "Wait a minute, aren't you Angel's chippie?" he asked, puzzled.

Cordelia/Jasmine's pleasant demeanor disappeared. "No, I'm the daughter of the boy you sent to Quor-Toth."

Now there was a longer pause as the demon tried to work it all out. "Wait a minute. You're the nameless one who was supposed to bring endless night to the planet?"

Cordelia/Jasmine took a bow. "In the flesh. Unlike you."

"Wait a minute. How is it…? You were… How can you both…?"

It was very rare to see a demon at a loss for words but Harmony and Cordelia/Jasmine were seeing one now.

"Here's the Reader's Digest version," said Harmony. "Connor escaped from Quor-Toth at age seventeen, Cordelia helped arrange events so that she and Connor could sleep together, thus giving birth to Jasmine. Jasmine tried to take over, Angel stopped her from doing so, Connor killed Jasmine's body."

Cordelia/Jasmine walked right up to Sahjhan and glared at him. "You can understand why I have somewhat mixed emotions about your involvement in all this. In a way, you brought me to life, but you also helped bring about my destruction."

"Look all of this is interesting in a supernatural soap-opera kind of way," Sahjhan said, getting snarky. "But I'm still waiting for the point."

The chill in Cordelia/Jasmine's voice dropped all the way down to zero. "The point, Sahjhan, is that me and my colleagues have gone to an enormous amount of trouble to bring you and everyone else here. Now I'm running low on patience and henchmen, so either sit down and shut up or I will put you back in the urn and put it under ten feet of concrete. GET IT?"

The last words were delivered with such ferocity that even Harmony recoiled. Sahjhan decided that it would be in his best interests to shut up.

"Now," Harmony began, trying to speak in a steady, non confrontational tone, "as I understand it, you have the power to make changes in the flow of time. Correct?"

"I have that power, yes."

"You have also demonstrated that you have the power to open other dimensions."

"So you picked up on that," Sahjhan said with a trace of sarcasm which Harmony chose to ignore. "What do you want me to use these special gifts?"

"We want you to break the barrier in the temporal fabric-- one that would open a portal to an alternative dimension. One where alternate versions of people such as Angel or Wesley may exist."

"You mean you want me to--"

Harmony nodded.

Sahjhan seemed uneasy for the first time. "You're crazy! Do you know how dangerous these temporal folds are? I do something like that, who knows what damage could be done? We could all be winked out of existence."

"Then you'd better not screw it up," said Cordelia/Jasmine sweetly.

"Oh no, I'm not getting mixed up with this kind of shit. I'm outta here." Sahjhan wavered , seemed to fade out-- and then faded back in again. "Well this is no good."

Cordelia/Jasmine's turned looked shark-like. "I'm using a dimensional hold spell I've known for five thousand years. You are staying in this dimension unless I do or say differently." She walked right up to him. "Is the picture now clear enough?"

Sahjhan had been around for a long time (though not as long as Cordelia/Jasmine). He knew when he was being held in check. "You know I can't just snap my fingers and boom! It takes a proper alignment of the time and the stars, as well as some powerful black magic on your part."

"All of which you'll have very soon." said Harmony. "Like I said, we've gone to a great deal of trouble to set this in motion. That means providing for most of the variables you need. But we don't have a great deal of time. So we'd better get moving."

Sahjhan heaved a great sigh. "Very well."

As the group started to walk off the set Cordelia/Jasmine turned to him. "Look on the bright side. You help us do this, we'll be able to ensure that Connor will never get a chance to kill you."

Sahjhan waved her off. "What I want is the head of the little tramp who had me swallowed whole."

"We've saved you the trouble. Justine Cooper's dead." Harmony felt no need to mention that she had helped arrange events in order to set Sahjhan free. It would just confuse things even more.

"And Angel? I owe him an ass-kicking too."

The vampire and former high Goddess shared a smile. "Trust me. Angel's ass is going to be soundly kicked before you catch up with him."

**5:10:22/5:10:23/5:10:24/5:10:25**

Buffy knew that she was probably most fortunate Slayer in history -- which the late Quentin Travers could have backed up with statistics from the council -- but she didn't know that she had set several records in her work. She had been Slayer for seven years, two years longer than any other. She had been the only Slayer to die and come back twice, which not only broke council records but also some biblical ones. And she had stopped more apocalypses than any Slayer. Even though the Council hadn't survived the last one. She also held an unofficial record: most Slayer related battles with humans-- three.

However, as any of her friends could testify, just because you're doing something that appears effortless and graceful in practice doesn't mean that it's actually easy. Certainly the three times she had fought against humans had not been. She had a lot of trouble gathering whatever it is necessary to face people in mortal combat. The first time she had done so-- against Faith-- she had been motivated by her love of Angel and her, then-hatred, of the dark-haired Slayer. The second time against the Knights of Byzantium, she would later admit to herself, she had been on the brink of a mental and psychological overload that had almost gotten everyone killed. The last time, against Willow, had been the hardest both physically and mentally. And Buffy was pretty sure that her hesitation had nearly gotten her and everyone else destroyed.

So when she realized that she and Wesley were involved in a fight with a battalion of humans, she had been very unclear as to how to deal with fighting them. Wesley clearly did not--as he demonstrated five minutes in to the fight when he had pulled a knife from his sleeve and stabbed one of his attackers in the chest. Despite everything that she had seen and heard about Wes in the past few months, she had been stunned to see him be so cold-blooded.

As for herself, Buffy was having somewhat mixed results. She had knocked three of the people who were fighting her out and two others she had knocked down but they kept coming. What was more they weren't following the standard movie cliché of attacking her one at a time-- they had been coming at her in twos and threes. Finally, they weren't attacking unarmed. Two of the men had held knives, the other three were holding two-by-fours. She had managed to disarm all of them, but that neither slowed them down nor changed targets. Either she'd have to change her tactics or she was going to be in serious trouble.

"All right, riddle me this," she said to the one man and two women now circling her. "Why on earth are three relatively normal people involved in something that could bring about the end of the world?"

None of them slowed down or even changed expressions. "You just don't get it do you?" the man said as he dodged left and went right. "We're not going to end the world. Just the part of it that you're in."

He swung an axe at Buffy. She dodged and managed to knock it out of his hands. "What bill of goods have they been trying to sell you?" she demanded, going on the offensive. "In case you haven't been paying attention, we're the good guys."

"Then why are you working for the center of evil itself?" said one of the women, coming at Buffy with a knife.

Buffy parried and managed to land a solid kick in the small of her back, knocking her to the floor.

"What planet are you guys from?" Buffy asked. "It's under new ownership. We've spent the last four months helping keep LA safer."

The otherwoman dodged Buffy's blows then lunged at her. "You really haven't been out on the street for a while, have you?" she said snidely.

"I'm out on these streets every night." But even as Buffy spoke she wondered. The fact was she had been semi-retired for a good three months, working mainly on training and monitoring Slayers. She had not been patrolling the city regularly. And even if she had, how would she know if things were normal? LA was not Sunnydale. The definition of typical in a small town was far different than the largest city in the country.

The man and the remainingwoman circled her, the man with a sword, the woman with a club. "Then sure you've noticed that crime is getting worse. The gangs are becoming more daring. Average people are committing more and more murders," said the woman.

"Like you?" said Buffy as they charged her.

"You may be doing fine against the supernatural killers but the everyday normal violence is getting a hell of a lot worse."

As Buffy twisted and turned. "That's not our responsibility," she said knocking the man to the floor. "We don't deal with those kinds of problems."

"You're right. That was my department." Suddenly Buffy realized that this wasn't any woman who was fighting her. Her voice sounded familiar somehow.

Wesley definitely recognized it. He spun around and pulled his gun. "Buffy! Over here!" Then he turned to the woman. "Call off your troops!"

"They aren't my troops!" the woman said. "Not all of the good guys can inspire armies. That's your department, not mine."

"Good Lord! Is that you, Detective?" Wesley seemed genuinely shocked.

Buffy looked at the woman. She was tall with dark blond hair, wearing ratty clothes. Yet there was something in her manner that screamed authority.

"I haven't been a detective in two years." said Kate Lockley. "You helped see to that."

**5:19:25/5:19:26/5:19:27**

Angel was beginning to wonder if the number of henchmen that Harmony and Ethan had working for them was truly infinite as he fought the last of the demons. Though he hadn't been keeping track he thought that he alone had fought thirty demons so far. He didn't know of any force that could get this much help, and he couldn't believe that Harmony and Ethan could inspire such kind of loyalty. It was an important question, but like so many today, he didn't think he would get an answer to it.

_Still,_ he thought as he managed to kill the last demon, _this isn't a small problem. If they've still got a big force after all this, we are truly screwed._

"Well, it's good to see that some things never change."

The voice behind him sounded bitterly amused.

"Still racking up a body count wherever you go."

Angel had thought that he was past the point of being surprised. Justine, Harmony, Lindsey McDonald-- their appearances he could deal with. But for some reason this voice hit him in a way the others hadn't. If she was working for them too--

He turned around. "Kate," he said in a low voice. "My God."

"There is no God." Kate spoke in a flat tone. "We've both known that for a long time."

Angel barely heard her. He scarcely recognized the woman who had been his contact in the LAPD for nearly two years. It wasn't just that her hair was trimmed short, her clothes were a lot dingier and her voice sounded raspier . Something fundamental had changed about her--something even deeper than the changes she had gone through in the years he had known her.

Then he noticed that Buffy and Wesley were standing a few feet behind her, along with five or six equally dingy looking people. "What are you doing here?" he managed to ask.

Kate gave a short bitter laugh. "I'm doing a layout for _Cosmo_. What the fuck does it look like?"

"What it looks like is that you're fighting against us," said Buffy.

"That assumes a lot of things, Summers." Kate sounded colder than she ever had. "It assumes that what you're doing is right. I'm not against you, I'm against your cause."

"I thought we were on the same side." For some reason it seemed very important to Angel that they clarify this. "We may have disagreed on tactics but we were fighting for the same things."

"We might have once. But then something horrible happened to me."

"You lost your job," Angel said.

Kate fixed him with a cold grin. "No. I lost my life." Her smile seemed awful somehow. "How about that? We have something in common now."

**5:24:08/5:24:09/5:24:10/5:24:11**

Faith knew that she was going to attract a lot of attention walking the floors of an ER. Which could lead to questions that might cause a lot of problems for her and, by extension, Angel-Slayer. But she couldn't help it. There was something in her make-up that made staying still impossible. Unless, of course, that stillness was coma-induced. Besides, if any situation deserved moving around, this did.

When the Angel-Slayer medics had reached Giles and Ethan Rayne, they had needed less than a minute to determine that the two men needed treatment only an emergency room could handled. Faith was less than wild about it, but realized there wasn't much that she could do. So they had gone to Venice General where they would have to cross their fingers and hope the staff didn't ask too many questions.

Half an hour had passed since both men had been wheeled into the emergency room. During that time Faith called Fred and told her about the situation. She'd also asked a hard question-- and had gotten an equally hard answer. If Ethan had been a person Faith cared about, she might have been disturbed by what she was thinking. As it was, she was more concerned as to how she was going to manage this rather than why.

A doctor with short brown hair walked into the waiting room. "Excuse me, miss." Faith hesitated before walking forward. "I'm Doctor Devilbiss. You came in with the two British gentlemen?"

"How are they doing?" she asked without preamble.

"Mr. Giles. You say he was in a furnace explosion?"

That had been the best story that Faith could come up with on short notice. It had been pretty flimsy but the doctor seemed to be buying it.

"Well, he twisted his left elbow pretty badly and his left ankle is broken. He'll be off his feet for at least a couple of weeks. We're running some more tests but there don't seem to be any internal injuries." The doctor took a deep breath. "However, there is some concern about his hearing."

This was news to Faith. "What's wrong?"

"The explosion seems to have severely damaged both of his eardrums. It's probably going to be at least a day before we have any idea whether the deafness is temporary or not."

Faith needed a few seconds to get around this. "What are the chances that it's permanent?"

Dr. Devilbiss gave her a hairy eyeball. "How do you know Mr. Giles anyway?"

Here she could tell the truth--some of it, anyway. "He and I are private investigators at the same security firm," she said. "I'm as close to family as you're going to get."

The doctor seemed to accept this. "The audiologist said it looked pretty bad. He thinks there's a fifty percent chance that he may not recover. I'm sorry."

Faith was beginning to feel a lot of her hate for Giles melting away. Which in turn made her think of Robin. For a moment-- and that was a long time for her-- she thought she was going to start crying again. She took several deep breaths, gathered her courage and asked the next question: "What about Rayne?"

"Is he also a friend of yours?" the doctor asked suspiciously.

This she was prepared for. "Ethan Rayne is a dangerous criminal. He caused the explosion in the first place."

Again the doctor considered this. "Rayne was stabbed in the back. We managed to stop the bleeding but there could be internal damage. We're preparing to operate."

This was it. "Doctor, it is vitally important that I talk with this man. Can you hold off putting him under?"

The doctor seemed confused. "Miss, uh…"

"Faith."

"Faith, from where he was cut, his pulmonary artery might be damaged. He's already having some difficulty breathing. If we want to save his life…"

Suddenly Faith had had it. "Dr. Devilbiss, this man is a liar and a killer. Today he was involved in several kidnappings and murders. Besides that he's involved with a plan that, if its successful, will endanger the lives of everybody in Los Angeles. And right now he is the only man who can stop it. Now, for Christ's sake, take me to his room NOW!"

The doctor thought for a while, looked at Faith and considered the urgency and desperation that was coming off her in waves. Finally he spoke. "All right. Come with me. Quietly." He began walking.

Faith followed, hoping that he believed her and trying not to think about what she was going to do next.

**5:31:22/5:31:23/5:31:24**

Fred knew what Faith was going to do as well and it didn't make her happy. God knew she had made a lot of cold-blooded decisions today and, given what Ethan Rayne had already done, she wouldn't object to seeing him dead but asking Faith to do something that would bring about the end of his life still bothered her.

She dealt with the problem in the only way that she knew how-- throwing herself into making sure that the world didn't come to an end. And to do that she walked back to the control room where Willow, Andrew and Leonard were busy.

Andrew and Willow looked up from their computer screens the second she arrived. "Any news on Giles?" Andrew asked.

Fred gave the safest answer possible. "The injuries were pretty severe, but he's probably going to make it."

"Of course he is," said Willow. "Giles ends up in the hospital whenever we're facing a great evil. This is par for the course. He'll be all right."

Fred knew that Willow was putting up a brave front but she knew better that to push. "Where are we on finding Harmony and Jasmine?" she asked.

Andrew shook his head. "Nothing on the satellites or the traffic cameras." He sighed. "Of course, since the only vehicle that we knew they had has become a fire hazard, we have no idea what to look for. "

"Yeah, and they're smart enough not to carve out a path of destruction in their wake," Willow added. "I think that we should ease up off the surveillance and concentrate on stopping this temporal bend."

"I'm telling you that kind of thing is a myth," Andrew protested. "It's a _Star Trek- Quantum Leap- Battlestar Galactica _kind of thing. Maybe Q could pull this off but no demon we know of can."

"Sahjhan can travel through time, which means that he is capable of doing some kind of dimensional distortions." Fred countered. "If he can manage that then this kind of thing isn't outside the realm of possibility."

"Maybe." Andrew didn't sound convinced but persuading the nerd was low on Fred's to-do list. "Are we even sure that Harmony and Jasmine have this Sahjhan?"

That Fred was sure of: "Justine was the last person to know where he is. If this temporal bend is really possible, she would have given them possession of him."

"But this Sahjhan was a pretty powerful demon, according to you." said Willow. "You really think Harmony and Jasmine could have handled him?"

"If they had the Recitian urn, they have all the power they need." Fred looked at them. "But Sahjhan is a pretty big demon. The two of them might be able to stay hidden but he's a parade all by himself." She moved to a free screen. "Start checking some of the cameras on the ground. I'm pretty sure we'll find them."

"Umm, that's all well good but I've a small question."

Everyone looked towards Leonard who spoke in a quiet voice. "This demon was world-famous for being nearly invincible, right?"

"Yeah." Fred answered. She knew what was coming and she had no answer for it. But she knew the question had to be asked.

"Once we find him, how the hell do we stop him?"

**5:36:40/5:36:41/5:36:42/5:36:43**

Angel had been hoping that, after calling off the attack, Kate would explain where the hell she had been for the last two years. Why she was now fighting against him.

Kate, however, was not being very forthcoming. She spent five minutes making sure that the people she had with her were okay, paying particular attention to a man named Royce whom Wesley had stabbed in the chest. Wesley had at least had the grace to look a little ashamed about it. She then spent the next five minutes making sure that there were no, as she put it, extra sets of eyes and ears watching them before finally taking all of them down to the basement of the mansion on her own. One of her troops, a dark-haired man named Hank, had asked: "What makes you so sure that they won't hurt you?"

Kate responded in a tone that was equal parts sarcasm and pain. "Don't you remember? They're the good guys. They have a reputation to maintain."

Hank gave a bitter smile of his own and left them alone. Two of her people stayed at the top of the stairs, though.

"This is all nice and cozy," said Buffy, "but how do we know that we can trust you?"

Kate gave a small bitter smile. "What's the matter, Summers? No trust in your fellow woman?"

"What, just because you and your friends tried to kill me?" Buffy said sarcastically.

"Enough," from Wesley. "She knows damn well that the three of us could take you if we tried. Let's stop wasting time and get down to it."

"Yeah. Starting with what the hell you mean when you said that you died."

Now Kate fixed Angel with one of those deep probing looks she had perfected while working for the LAPD. "You know damn well what I meant by it. You were there when it happened."

Suddenly a horrible and very plausible thought came to Angel. "No. You're not talking about…"

"What, my little Xanax and Smirnoff cocktail two years ago? Come on Angel, don't tell me you never asked yourself how it was you got into my apartment without an invitation."

In point of fact Angel never had given it much consideration, coming fresh from his little epiphany. "But I thought that…"

"… that whoever-it-was in charge decided to give you a break? Come on, we all know that the world doesn't work that way?" Kate gave another harsh laugh. "I guess it was just another case of 'like father, like daughter?'"

Buffy seemed to be struggling with everything. "All right, you died. Big whoop. I've died a couple of times and I didn't go running to the dark side."

Angel didn't let that last remark go. "You began screwing Spike and tried to kill your friends."

Buffy shot him a harsh look. "That was different."

"Yes, but it shows how a person can find their principles changing." Wesley said, looking at Kate with a sign of understanding. "What happened after that?" he asked the former detective.

"I spent the next two months trying to figure out what the hell I could do now that I was out of work and hip to the darkness. I ended up going to that karaoke bar your pal Lorne hung out at." Her tone softened a little. "I took three drinks, sang 'New York Minute' and got him to do a reading. He said that I was in a very dark place but if I managed to pull myself together I could use that darkness against itself." Kate looked at them bemusedly. "Long story short, I checked up on some of the people I knew from my time in the department and decided to go into…I guess you'd call it, security. Only, unlike you, I decided to keep my work strictly related to people."

"So the men and women who we were fighting…" from Buffy.

"My co-workers. I also gave them a crash course in the world of the supernatural just in case we had to deal with it. Turns out we've had to deal with this quite a bit." She fixed another nasty look on Angel. "Particularly considering what happened last year."

"How did you end up working with the bad guys?" asked Wesley.

"Like I said, what makes you so sure you're not the bad guys?" Kate held up her hand to preempt further comments. "Four months ago a guy named Kilner came over to my office and informed me that you and your friends had taken over Wolfram & Hart."

"Another lawyer,." Angel said resignedly.

Kate shook her head. "This guy worked for the FBI. He told me that there was a small offset of the bureau that had been monitoring this company's activities within the human and demon world. They believed that this shift in ownership would give them a chance to find out what was going on in LA. "

The picture was beginning to come into focus for Buffy. "They didn't have any military connections did they?"

"I don't know. What I do know is that they offered me the manpower and the equipment to keep an eye on you and your people."

Buffy did the math. "Four months ago--that's when me and my friends came to LA."

Kate nodded. "Apparently they didn't trust you either. That was one of the things that raised my suspicions. So I had some of my people do a background check. And we're pretty sure that Kilner worked at Wolfram & Hart's D.C. office."

"But you still took their money," said Angel.

"To guarantee that we could get a closer look at the belly of the beast? Of course I did." Kate raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that why you went to work for them, too?"

Angel realized he was in no position to take the moral high ground. "All right. So after you took their money--"

"We started to keep a closer look around your operation."

"And how did you manage that?" Wesley voice had gone cold

"We didn't have to do a great deal." Kate said, speaking very coldly. "According to Kilner, when Wolfram & Hart became Angel-Slayer, the FBI managed to get one of their guys on the inside."

It took ten seconds for the bombshell to register. Buffy was the first to recover. "How-- Who-- How the hell did they do that?" she finally spat. "Do you know how many background checks we did?"

"Yes, because it's impossible to develop a background that wouldn't stand up to that kind of scrutiny," Kate said calmly.

At this they all had the grace to look uncomfortable because Willow and Fred had done some tweaking to make sure no one thought oddly of people like Faith and Andrew being able to work at Angel-Slayer.

"All right, who is this person?" Angel asked.

"You know better than that. The second we tell you, his life is worth less than nothing," Kate said. "Besides we're going to keep working with him even if we all make it through today."

"Never mind that. How is it that you're working with Harmony and Ethan Rayne?" asked Wesley.

"One month ago our guy told us that someone working with Wolfram & Hart was involved in an apocalypse scenario. He told us that they were working with some outside contractors and that they would be needing some help." Kate paused. "We'd figured that the best way to stop them would be to be some of the help. So they arranged a meeting with Ethan and Harmony and we managed to convince them that it would be a good match."

"What was your price?" Angel asked coldly.

Kate gave another sharp laugh. "No one brings about an apocalypse in order to get rich. They put it on a matter of having positions of power and privilege in the world to come."

"And knowing who you are and what you did, Ethan and Harmony both believed that you were on their side. "said Buffy doubtfully.

"Have those two ever been known for their brainpower?" asked Kate.

"Fair point." conceded Buffy. "But now that we're here what are we supposed to do now?"

At this Kate lost some of her cool certainty. "We're not sure. All that we know is that in ten minutes we're supposed to talk with our guy and tell him one thing."

"Which is?" asked Angel.

"If you've been here… And if any of you are still alive."

**5:50:08/5:50:09/5:50:10/5:50:11**

Faith had known that it was going to take more than her say so to radically change their methods of treating Ethan Rayne. Which was why she had made arrangements with Fred to have her call someone on the California medical board about it. And, sure enough, three minutes into his protest Ethan Rayne's physician received a phone call. He had been away long enough to make Faith think that he was going to be one of those doctors you see on 'ER' or 'Chicago Hope'-- one who stood up to outside pressure.

Fortunately, the doctor didn't have the rocks for that kind of behavior and returned from his phone call angry but defeated. Perhaps, under different circumstances, Faith might have been upset by what she and her friends were doing to basically good people. But right now she didn't care. Couldn't let herself care. And, sadly, she was good at that.

The angry doctor-- Macintyre, she thought his name was-- left Rayne's bed and walked over to Faith. "All right. We've got him in a condition so that he'll be able to talk to you. However, I should tell you that he's just come from being under sedation so I don't know how coherent he'll be." He shook his head. "Even with all of our medical capabilities I don't think we'll be able to keep him conscious very long so ask your questions fast."

Faith knew that thanking the doctor would be hypocritical so she just nodded and started walking towards the door. "You do know that this will probably kill him." Dr. Macintyre said as she reached it.

"I'm aware of that," Faith said grimly.

"It's that important?" The doctor asked as if he didn't expect an answer. Faith gave him one anyway.

"That's an acceptable risk."

She entered the room and got her first real look at Ethan. The former servant of Chaos looked very bad indeed. He was hooked up to a huge number of tubes and machines. Only his head was visible and it looked incredibly pale. He looked-- there was no other phrase-- like he was on his deathbed. Despite everything, it still took her several seconds to speak to him.

"Ethan Rayne." She spoke as firmly as possible. He managed to look towards her. "Listen carefully. You are on the brink of death. The only thing stopping it is my say-so. So, if you want to live, you will answer my questions fast and honestly. Got it?"

"Y-yes." he managed to whisper.

"Where are Harmony and Jasmine going to be?' she asked.

"Going…to…the beach," he managed to say.

Stay calm, girl. "Which beach?"

"V-Venice."

"What are they going to do there?"

"Open…a hole…in time." He seemed to be growing grayer if that was possible. "Make…people…disappear."

Faith suddenly realized that Dr. Macintyre hadn't been exaggerating, and that if she didn't learn the whole plan expressed in vague terms she would get bogged down on the details. She hurried on. "How are they going to do this?"

"Blood…black magic…and Sahjhan," he managed to get out.

"Sahjhan?" Suddenly a lot of things that had happened today made more sense-- Justine's involvement, the plot to abduct Connor. "Were you the one who was going to use the magic?"

"Who… else…?" he said faintly.

"Then they can't do this without you." Suddenly Faith was relieved. Harmony and Jasmine couldn't pull this off. They were safe.

But Ethan was not finished. "Have… back-up… wizard."

"What? Who?" Faith leaned in.

"Thompson…got…bad."

"Why? Who is it?"

Suddenly Ethan's expression changed. Despite the agony he had to be feeling, he had a trace of his old smugness present. "Got.. a… secret…" It was clearly taking a tremendous effort for him to speak now.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm… the…one…"

By now Faith was leaning in deeply.

"…who …got…your…boyfriend."

Suddenly the earth stopped spinning. "Wait a minute." Faith said. "You--you rigged the box with the Band in it. Did you…"

But before she could finish her question, sirens and bells began sounding. Dr. Macintyre came running in. "Damn it! Nurse get the epinephrine ready stat!"

He pushed Faith out of the way. Because she was shocked by what she had heard, she fell to the side. It helped bring her back to earth and suddenly she realized what Ethan Rayne had done. One last 'fuck you' to the forces of good.

She left the room and pulled out her cell. Not knowing that only a few feet away someone was doing the same thing.

**5:57:22/5:57:23/5:57:24**

Harmony was beginning to get worried. Not that she gave a damn for Ethan Rayne, of course. Like Willow and Spike, he was just the means to an end. Someone you had to deal with if you wanted to bring about the changes she wanted to know.

No, she was worried because the time was drawing closer and a vital part of the plan was missing. They'd be in deep shit--

Her phone rang. "Yeah." she snapped.

"Ethan Rayne is dead," said the voice at the other end.

"Nothing can change that?" asked Harmony, knowing of Ethan's tricks.

"Even if he survives he'll be in no condition to help us. As far as today goes, he's out of the picture." There was a pause. "We will have to go to Plan B."

"Uh-uh," Harmony replied quickly. "There's no way that they are just going to let us grab her again. _She_ won't let us grab her again."

"How are we supposed to proceed then?" asked the voice at the other end.

"Simple. We go to Plan C."

"We have a Plan C?" the voice asked sarcastically.

"Yes, we do." Harmony said calmly. "And as soon as I hang up, I'm going to put it into action."

Suddenly a phone rang. Not chirping, not blaring, it rang.

Angel and Buffy looked at Kate who shrugged. "Sometimes you can't improve on the original."

Kate picked up the phone in the wall. "This is Lockley." She listened for a second. "Not yet, but--" Kate hesitated. "Really?" Pause. "You're sure?" Pause. "I'll have people there in thirty minutes." She hung up.

"Harmony?" asked Angel.

"Yeah, but she didn't ask about you guys. She says to send some of my people to meet hers for a retrieval mission." Kate sounded bewildered.

So was Buffy. "When did Harmony learn military talk?"

Wesley spoke up. "Who are you supposed to retrieve?"

Kate turned around. "Lindsey McDonald."

**5:59:57/5:59:58/5:59:59/6:00:00**


	19. 6PM to 7PM

Chapter 19

The Following Takes place between 6 PM and 7 PM on the day of the Autumnal Equinox.

"Hold it, hold it," said Buffy walking over to Kate at the phons. "What exactly did Harmony tell you?"

For a moment Angel thought Kate was going to keep being difficult. Then she spoke: "Harmony says the plan has changed somewhat. In order for it to work now, she needs someone with magical power. According to them Lindsey McDonald is one such person."

"And you're going to, what, meet a group of demons who work for her and together you're going to 'persuade' him to come with you?" asked Angel.

"Yes, and we have to do it in half an hour, so we have to get moving." Kate walked up the stairs.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Buffy started after her. "Harmony tells you to do something and you jump?"

Kate didn't stop. "Right now making sure Harmony Kendall doesn't know that anything's wrong is my main concern."

"So you're just going to follow her order," said Wesley.

Kate turned around. "Look, as much fun as this conversation has been, you haven't said anything to convince me I'm doing the wrong thing. Me and my people are going to stop Harmony's plans and then we're going to get back to doing whatever it takes to bring down Wolfram & Hart. And, as an added bonus, we're going to be able to take a major player in the world of darkness off the street." She started walking up the stairs with Buffy still on her tail.

"That's going to be awfully difficult considering he's in our hotel," Angel pointed out.

That got Kate's attention. "He's where?"

"He's at The Hyperion, under the guard of Gunn, two Slayers and a whole bunch of our security." Angel decided that Kate didn't need to know about Connor or Spike at the moment. "Plus there's the small fact that Lindsey McDonald has changed rather significantly since you two were last acquainted."

"You're not going to tell me that he's got a soul now too." Kate said with bitter sarcasm

"No, but he's become a rather powerful magician," Wesley informed her. "Even if he wasn't under guard, it wouldn't be easy for you to take him."

Buffy stood one stair below Kate. "Look Miss Lockley, I understand that you don't like us a hell of a lot. That's okay. Right know we don't like you much either. But, as much as you might want to deny it, you and your people are in over your heads. It takes a hell of a lot more than money and people and the desire to do good to stop an apocalypse. " Buffy had walked around Kate to stand on the step above her. "You have to have power. "

"Which you don't have," Angel added. "And while guts and prayers may get you through a lot, against this it will get you and all of your friends killed."

"And working with you will keep us alive?" Kate asked defiantly.

"Their deaths won't accomplish anything," said Wesley. "Maybe your life doesn't mean much to you but, trust me, theirs will."

The three of them-- Buffy one stair above Kate, Angel at the foot of the stairs and Wesley on the floor-- were staring angrily at her. It would have taken a brave person not to fold under their glares but Kate was holding her own. Finally, she focused her look at Angel. "We have fifteen minutes before I'm supposed to meet Harmony's team. If any of you have a plan-- a real one-- you're going to have to start talking about now." She walked past Buffy.

As she did Buffy spoke: "Well that was easy. Now all we have to do is figure out how to get Lindsey out of our custody and into Kate's without the bad guys knowing we're helping her do it." She looked at the others. "Any ideas?"

Angel started walking up . "I have the beginnings of one. But we're going to need help." He sighed. "Help I'm not sure these people can give."

**6:06:59/6:07:00/6:07:01**

Psychologically speaking things had been heading downhill for Faith for the last six hours. She was a Slayer, which meant she had a high tolerance for whatever pain the world could throw at her, but, as a lot of the Scoobies could testify, emotionally she didn't handle things nearly as well. Adding to her problem was that she was alone. She used to like working alone-- it had been part of her character-- but she knew it wasn't healthy. She needed back-up in more ways than one, so when she had given her unpleasant news to Fred, she had asked for them to send somebody out to Venice to give her a hand. Fred told her to go outside and someone would be there in fifteen minutes.

Which still gave her some time alone with her thoughts. Time enough to make a phone call. She didn't have to make the call-- Fred had assured her that she would make sure everybody got the news-- but she figured that, given what had happened and what he had done for her earlier, he deserved to hear it from her lips.

Xander picked up on the first ring. "Yeah?" He sounded extremely tired which wasn't surprising. It had been a long day and he had no special powers to get him through this.

"It's me," Faith said quietly.

"Faith, I thought that you weren't going to call here anymore."

"This has nothing to do with Robin…It's about Giles."

There was a long pause on the other end. "What happened to him?" Xander said tiredly.

"Ethan Rayne arranged it so that the truck Giles and I were chasing blew up," she told him. "We both got hurt, but he couldn't handle it like me."

"Is he dead?"

"No, he's alive. He was badly hurt but they think he's out of the woods." Before Xander could breathe a sigh of relief, she told him the rest: "But the explosion did something to his hearing. And…they think there's a good chance that it'll be permanent."

Hearing the words aloud made part of her ache all over again.

It was nearly thirty seconds before Xander spoke again. "After that psycho Jerry Falwell attacked me they said that I'd never see again, but I can. Maybe there's something that can be done for him."

"Maybe," Faith said. "It's even possible the hearing loss is only temporary. But he may never be able to take an active part in keeping the world safe."

Xander thought that over too. "Right now I'm not entirely convinced that would be bad." He sighed. "Faith, Robin's not getting any better. They'll keep trying but they're saying at best he's only going to live another week."

Some part of Faith had been expecting this since she had heard of Robin's poisoning, but it still hurt like hell. Now she was the one who needed a moment to get a hold of herself.

"I'm sorry Faith." said Xander. Faith was about to say something-- she wasn't sure what, probably a meaningless cliché-- when she heard someone behind her. She whirled around -- just in time to see someone dart behind a wall. Without lowering the phone Faith began to walk back to where she had heard the noise.

She hadn't gone more than ten feet when the man began running. Shoving the phone in her pocket she started chasing after him. As tired and achy as she was, she still had a Slayer's speed. In seconds, she had caught up to him and shoved him to the ground

"Faith! Faith!" Xander's voice sounded far away. Faith ignored it and turned the man around.

"What the hell?"

Lying in front of her was the man who had brought the Stone of Meligan to Justine Cooper nearly fourteen hours earlier.

**6:13:24/6:13:25/6:13:26/6:13:27**

Andrew had expected that the closer Angel-Slayer got to the endgame of this particular apocalypse, things would start getting clearer. Instead it just seemed to get more and more complicated.

Buffy, Angel and Wesley were dealing with this Kate Lockley in an effort to try and protect Lindsey McDonald-- though how exactly she had gotten involved in this whole mess was somewhat beyond him. Spike, Gunn and Connor were over at the Hyperion trying to keep Lindsey safe-- though how they were going to do that and not mess with Kate's plan was something else that they were keeping close to the vest. Xander was in Wilshire trying to look after an ailing Robin. Faith was in Venice doing the same for an ailing Giles. There was a very good chance that neither was going to be a factor in the fight against evil any longer and nobody was talking about that either.

And the group at Angel-Slayer Inc. were trying to track down a vampire, a demon-human hybrid and a rather nasty large demon all of whom had patterns for mass destruction, and not having a great deal of luck at that either. For all of their surveillance capabilities and computer technology, the plain fact was that you can't find anything unless you know where to look. And they didn't know where to look.

But they had almost no other options. Roderick, the vampire that Angel and Wesley had managed to take prisoner earlier had reached the limits of his knowledge. Lorne had gone through almost all of his old demon contacts and had come up with nothing, as had the few sources that the other members of Angel-Slayer had.

So Andrew had been reduced to looking through some of the old traffic photos of Venice and Santa Monica-- the last known location of Harmony and Cordelia/Jasmine. It was a long shot, but some funny ones had been coming through today.

Suddenly his phone rang. "Andrew." he said answering it.

"It's Faith. Andrew, you know the guy who delivered the Stone holding Spike to Justine?"

Considering everything that had happened today it took a few seconds for her description to click. "Yeah. We lost track of him after we found out Justine was a Slayer."

"Well, I've just caught up with him again."

Andrew perked up. "He was at the hospital?"

"Right now he's under my knees." Pause. "I mean, I'm holding him prisoner." Another pause. "I mean…"

"I know what you mean Faith." Andrew said taking her off the hook. "Did you got a name out of him?"

"Yeah. He says his name is Samuel Hendricks. "

Andrew thought for a second. "How sure are you that that's his real name?"

"Not very. He's not giving me a hell of a lot of information and--" There was another hesitation. "Finally."

"What's happening?"

"My ride just got here." She left the line.

"It's about time you guys showed up!" he heard her yell. "I was getting worried I'd have to find ways to amuse myself!" She came back on the line. "The guy isn't telling me a heck of a lot, so do some kind of background check on him. Find out if he works for the wolf, ram and the hart."

"Got it." He put the phone down and began running Samuel Hendricks's name through the Wolfram & Hart database. It took fifteen seconds for the name to pop up.

In an unexpected place.

"Um, Faith according to this, Hendricks did work for Wolfram & Hart."

"Where?"

"Mergers and Acquisitions. That is, until one month ago."

"Where does he work now?"

"That's just it. According to this, Wolfram & Hart let him go."

Faith considered this. "Um, Wolfram & Hart terminates its employees. It doesn't let them go."

"Says here that they gave him one month's severance pay."

"They don't do that either."

Andrew thought it over. "Which could mean either of two things. Either this Hendricks is lying about who he is or maybe he's still working for them in one of those subterranean, Smoking Man-like plots."

"That's a hell of a choice." Faith said.

"Where are you now?" Andrew asked.

"In one of the company cars."

Andrew gave a small smile. "Then maybe you should take this time to interrogate him a little."

**6:20:30/6 20:31/6:20:32**

"You know, if I keep this up, people are going start typecasting me," Faith said. "I'll the bad Slayer again, the one who has no trouble torturing people to get what she needs."

"Well Fred hasn't been thrilled about doing it either," Andrew said into her ear. "When the day is over you and her can compare war stories."

"Yeah. That'll be fun." Faith glanced at Hendricks, whom she had buckled into the back seat and handcuffed to the door. He was currently proving that a man can look daggers at a Slayer as well as a vampire. "But I guess I don't have much of a choice." Suddenly an idea struck her. "Unless--"

"Unless what?"

"That's absolutely right. I'll talk to you in a few minutes," Faith said cheerfully.

"Faith, what are you--" She hung up, cutting him off mid-sentence.

Faith leaned in. "Mr. Hendricks, I just got off the phone with my people, as we say around here. And they just told me that you worked for our old friends, Wolfram & Hart."

Hendricks remained silent.

"Still got nothing to say?" she asked jovially. "Good, then listen. It's pretty clear that you have a--" she made the air quotes sign "--'special' relationship with the good people at W and H. And I would hate to spoil it. So, here's what I'm going to do." Speaking to the driver in the front seat she said, "Take us to Southern Boulevard."

As the car pulled out, she began unlocking the handcuffs she'd put on Hendricks. "I'm going to let you go."

The look on Hendricks face became puzzled. "What?"

"Well, you don't want me to torture you, and I don't want to torture you, so I'm going to save us both the trouble. I know that your people are following us so I'm going to take a lot of pressure off everybody and let you walk away free and clear."

The smug look on Hendricks' face faded away. "No, you can't. They see that I'm all right, th-th-they're going to…"

"Kiss-kiss-bang-bang," Faith said. "I know how bad this looks but I'm sure once you explain things exactly as I did they'll be the typically calm, warm, and friendly people we know them to be." With a shark's grin she said, "I hope that you have as good a day as I'm having."

"Wait, wait!" Hendricks looked genuinely panicked. "I can help you."

"And have you betray your former employers? I couldn't make you do that," Faith said sweetly.

"All right, all right! What do you want from me?" he asked

"For starters, what were you doing at the hospital?"

"They wanted me to find out if Ethan Rayne told you anything."

"What does that matter to you? You don't work for Wolfram & Hart anymore. "

"I'm not really working for them. I'm working a special assignment with our government office."

That was new. "What does that have to do with what's going on today?" Faith asked.

"Thompson-- the guy who helped put this operation together-- thinks that we have a leak in the project. Somebody who's working both sides of the game."

"Nice try, but this is Wolfram & Hart. Everybody's working at least one angle on everything."

"This is different." said Hendricks frantically. "It's someone in Angel-Slayer."

Suddenly Faith went cold. She grabbed Hendricks by the lapels. "You're lying." she said as she pulled him in.

"No, no, I swear I'm not." Hendricks looked scared but firm.

"You're telling me that one of our own people is working for you?" Hendricks nodded frenetically. "Who? WHO?"

"I swear on my life that I don't know."

Faith pulled back. As if they didn't have enough problems. Now someone she knew-- someone she had trusted-- was working with the bad guys. The question was who? And how to find out?

Faith needed help. So, even though the person in question might be working the phones now, she did what she had to.

She called Fred.

**6:27:16/6:27:17/6:27:18/6:27:19**

Kate didn't like what they were asking her to do but Angel knew her well enough to know that no suggestion coming from him would be met with enthusiasm. Buffy, however, had been just as uneasy about the idea as Kate had been. There were too many variables that could end up with people on either side dead. Angel admitted that the plan had flaws, but that they had no time to hammer out anything better. A point that Buffy ultimately conceded.

So Kate was at the place she had agreed to meet Harmony and Ethan's contact-- a spot less than two blocks away from the Hyperion. The three of them were there as well: Angel in an alley a block away, Buffy and Wesley in their car a block further than that. There had been disagreement on this course of action, too, but Angel had insisted that he wanted to be closer to Kate if something went wrong.

"Besides," he'd argued, "I'm the one with the great hearing. If they try to pull a fast one I'll know for sure."

So there they all were-- Kate in her place, Angel in his, Buffy and Wesley in theirs. The only ones not there were Harmony's people, which was surprising. Angel had thought that it was likely that some of them might be scouting around looking for, well, him, so he had hidden in a dumpster. But no one had come by yet. Angel was beginning to think that it might have just been nerves.

He felt a small vibration in his pocket. It took him a bit to remember that he had turned off the ringer on his cell phone, remove it and answer it.

"This isn't going to work," said the voice on the other end without any preliminaries.

"Buffy, we've been over this already." said Angel. "If we get any closer than this they're going to find us. These henchmen are smarter than usual. They're going to be looking for us."

"That'll be difficult but that's not the problem I had in mind," said Buffy doggedly. "We really should—"

"No."

"We should warn them," Buffy continued as if he hadn't said anything.

"We have been over this. If Gunn and Spike look too ready when Harmony comes with her they'll back off. We won't be able to snatch them up and we'll be done."

"That's bullshit. How many minions can Harmony and her crew get together? We have to have gone through at least a hundred or so. Unless she's got a Hellmouth to pull them out off, her ranks have got to be getting pretty thin."

It was a perfectly sound point. Angel wasn't sure he could refute it when he turned his attention back to Kate and found that she was no longer alone. "We're going to have to table this discussion," he said. "It looks like—"

He stopped mid-sentence because he had just seen something that made their lives a whole lot more complicated. There were seven people in the street: Kate and two of her seconds on one side, and three vampires on the other. It was the seventh person his eyes kept coming back too.

Because even at a distance he recognized Cordelia.

**6:32:21/6:32:22/6:32:23**

Kate had only been party to some of the details of the day's plan, so she was as surprised as Angel when she saw that the leader of the vamps was the woman she had known as Cordelia Chase. She tried to cover it up, but Cordelia/Jasmine noticed: "Let me guess, you're shocked and appalled to see me working against Angel," she said with a cold smile.

Kate knew that she had to play it very carefully. "It doesn't surprise me to see you on the wrong side of things. What does surprise me is that Kendall and Rayne would risk someone of your level to do grunt work."

The smile on Cordelia/Jasmine's face receded a bit. "Our numbers have been greatly reduced by today's events. A lot of our soldiers fell to those pin-headed do-gooders." The smile came back. "We will restore the balance but, right now, I have to step up."

"They must be pretty sure of themselves. Weren't you in a coma six hours ago?" Kate asked casually.

The smile had completely disappeared. "Modern medicine can do wondrous things. Can we get down to business? Time is something of a factor here?"

"So I understand." Kate put her hands together. "We're less than two blocks away from the Hyperion where people from Angel-Slayer are guarding Lindsey McDonald." She raised an eyebrow. "Do I even want to know why they're doing that?"

"They recognize that Lindsey can be a very valuable prize to whichever side he ends up fighting for," Cordelia /Jasmine said, walking around her. "We want him for the exact same reason."

Kate knew that there was more to the story but knew better than to press. "In any case our people tell us that that while the Hyperion is big, the security detail is not: Six or seven guards, including at least one Slayer, Charles Gunn and this vampire Spike." Kate looked straight at her. "Am I leaving anything else out?

"That pretty much covers it." Cordelia/Jasmine had just told her first flat-out lie. Angel had told her that one of the guards was a strong fighter named Connor. She knew that he meant more to Angel than had been implied, but she decided to let this pass-- now was not the time to bring up family matters.

"How are we going to get in?" Kate asked.

"Two or three of your people and four of mine are going to make a charge through the entrance." Cordelia/Jasmine paused. "While they're doing that, me, you and the rest of our people are going to use the building's fire escapes to climb up to the floor where we think that they're keeping Lindsey."

"I take it that you have some idea where that is?" Kate asked.

"The man that we have inside says that Lindsey's on the fourth floor," Cordelia/Jasmine replied. "We don't know which room he's in but it shouldn't be that difficult to find out."

"How hard a fight do you expect it to be?"

"Problematic, but we figure once they see that they're fighting people they'll ease up a little. Particularly Spike." Cordelia/Jasmine smiled. "That soul always makes them hold back."

_How would you know? _Kate thought but didn't say. Instead, she stated another concern: "We do this, my people could get killed."

"Considering how many of our people have been dusted today, you're not going to get much sympathy from me on that end." Cordelia/Jasmine said, sounding a little pissed. "Anyway, you know how these white hats are. They see humans, they'll back off."

Kate shook her head. "You're counting on their humanity to work for you. I never realized how dark you really were."

Cordelia/Jasmine walked around to her other side. "You knew what we were when you signed on," she said with a smile. "Now we need to get moving. We need to get this done fast and now."

"Wait a minute." Kate said. She wanted to stall for several reasons, so she chose the easiest one. "How exactly are we going to deal with Lindsey's powers?"

Cordelia/Jasmine had started already moving. "Oh we've got something special in mindfor him."

Hoping Angel and the others had heard everything, Kate followed after her.

**6:39:44/6:39:45/6:39:46/6:39:47**

As much as Kate disliked them, she had been a woman of her word: she had kept her cell phone on and open during her conversation with Cordelia/Jasmine. Since she had dialed Wesley's phone five minutes before, Buffy and Wesley had managed to get almost everything that had said.

Unfortunately Cordelia/Jasmine and Kate had started moving before they could get some vitally important details. And while the cell phones they had were ultra state of the art, they still couldn't get past the problems of being carried in the pocket of a moving body. Which was clearly what was happening now.

"-- two--ep--round--forward--alco--" It sounded like Cordelia's voice but it could have been Sharon Stone for all Buffy could tell.

"Great, we're trying to save the world and the phone sounds like the drive-thru at Doublemeat," said Buffy sighing.

"It doesn't matter," said Wesley. "We have the basic outline of the plan. The details aren't as important."

"Isn't the devil in the details?"

He looked at Buffy who shrugged.

"I'm sorry. I heard it in a movie and it sounded cool. I don't have the foggiest idea what it means."

Wesley just looked at her. Fortunately, at that moment, Buffy's cell phone rang. "Yeah?"

"You getting anything else from Kate?" Angel asked.

"You can't get anything on your end?" returned Buffy.

"They're walking away from me and they've got a small entourage behind them. I'm as close as I'm going to get."

Buffy listened as Wesley's cell phone continued to sing the chorus from 'Witch Doctor'. "We've gotten all we're going to, but according to Wesley that's enough. Do you think it is?"

"It'll have to be. They intend to make their move on the hotel now. I think that we've got ten, maybe fifteen minutes before they strike. We need to get ready to start countering them."

"And we're still not going to warn Gunn and Spike." Buffy had been about to start on that when Wesley interrupted her.

"I don't want to go over this again but we actually have a more pressing issue than warning the others." he said, somewhat agitated.

"Such as…?" Buffy was getting agitated herself.

"That Harmony and her squad have a man inside Angel/Slayer."

Buffy considered this for a second. "First of all, we don't know that it's a man. For all we know it could be a girl. Second" she continued before Wesley could make a more direct comment, "and more importantly: old news. We've known that they've had a man inside since this morning. There's at least one high level Wolfram & Hart personnel working for Thompson and against us."

Angel interrupted: "Unfortunately, the problem is now larger than that. They knew where we were keeping Lindsey. They have a layout of the Hyperion. They know what floor he's on. "

The seriousness of the situation struck Buffy. "The only ones who know that are our people.""It's possible someone let it slip," Wesley admitted. "There are a lot of people working for us and it's a very big building."

"Well, before we start doing a Joe McCarthy let's be damn sure." Buffy was starting to get angry and concerned all at once. "Call Willow or Fred."

Wesley dialed Angel-Slayer. When Fred answered she barely had time to say two words before he said: "Fred, we may have a security problem."

"I'll see you your security problem and raise you," Fred responded.

"How did you know?"

"A little worm told us."

"What?"

**6:44:27/6:44:28/6:44:29**

Fred took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. "I didn't think that anything else could happen to make today any worse," she said, "then half an hour ago Faith calls and tells me that she ran into another spy from Wolfram & Hart."

"Where?"

Fred hesitated. After a fair amount of internalizing she had decided that she wouldn't tell Buffy about Giles's condition. They knew he was in the hospital. Telling Buffy would only bring her closer to overload than she already was. She wasn't happy about it but, like the others in similar situations, she realized how big the crisis was. Everybody needed to be close to their peak. "At the hospital where Giles and Ethan Rayne are being treated. A guy named Samuel Hendricks was watching in the wings."

"What exactly did he tell you?"

"That one of…" she swallowed "our people is working with Wolfram & Hart against us."

There was a long pause as Wesley considered. "How sure are you that he isn't talking out his arse?"

"We've considered that," Fred said. "Under different circumstances I might write it off as more Wolfram & Hart posturing. But this whole day…" she sighed. "It just feels like somebody's been matching us move for move."

"Maybe they have a psychic working for them. Don't laugh, it's not outside the realm of possibility."

"I didn't and it isn't. Frankly I'd be a lot happier if it were," Fred said. I mean being spied on from afar is easier to take than the idea of…" She trailed off and sighed. "But you obviously think that they have someone on the inside."

"According to Jasmine there definitely is."

Fred frowned. "Jasmine's there?" She had gotten the Cliff Notes version of their encounter with Kate and their plan, but she hadn't expected Jasmine to be there.

"Yes, and we have to get moving on our end," Wesley said abruptly. "If Angel's right we don't have much time. Look, if there is a person he or she would have to have joined us after we all arrived in Los Angeles, right?"

"Odds are that's right."

"Then here's what we should do: Keep information limited strictly to board members. Anyone who isn't from Sunnydale or our group, we keep as far out of the loop as possible."

"I've already talked with Willow and Andrew about doing something like that." Fred said in agreement. "Fortunately there's enough to do so that we can probably keep non-essentials busy on less than vital things." Fred rolled her eyes. "Now I'm starting to sound like I'm in a war movie."

"That's a good way to keep thinking about this. Like it or not we're right in the middle of combat against a scurrilous enemy. We are at war. We should sound like it."

"I guess so."

"All right, we're going to go over what we're going to do now."

Fred shifted her attention on what was going to happen next. But a small part of her mind kept thinking about the possibility of a double agent working at Angel-Slayer.

And what happened when traitors were exposed during a war.

**6:51:06/6:51:07/6:51:08/6:51:09**

For Gunn, it was déjà vu all over again. Yes, he was protecting one person in a hotel but essentially he was protecting one person from a rather large enemy. He knew very well how badly things had done eleven hours ago; he was going to be damn sure that history didn't repeat itself.

In many ways, it was an easier job than guarding the Wolfram & Hart building. For one thing, the Hyperion was barely a quarter the size of that building, for another it already had a pretty advanced security system. But he was faced with much the same problem that had occurred earlier in the day: a shortage of manpower. It was partly his own doing as he had thought that the chance of a similar invasion was much less likely. After all, few people knew that they had Lindsey McDonald and an even smaller number knew that they were using this building as a safehouse.

Then Willow had called and told him, in very plain terms, that somebody on the inside might be working against them. Gunn had been particularly cut to the quick because he had put most of the new hires onto the security detail.

"After nearly eight years doing this I thought that I could trust the people I work with," he told Willow. "I mean, we did background checks back through grade school. We had Lorne read them. Everything." He shook his head. "How the hell did they do this to us?"

"I don't know," Willow admitted. "These people work with evil. They must have ways to work around even the most extreme tests." She sighed. "Anyway, it doesn't matter now. We have to prepare to defend ourselves."

"Which means that we have to get ready for an all out assault."

"I don't think that'll happen," Willow said thoughtfully. "I mean, they have to have lost a lot of vamps and demons today. Unless their ranks are truly bottomless, they gotta be down to the dregs."

Gunn considered. "I suppose you're right," he conceded. "They probably can't do another assault like they did earlier. It will have to be a lot lower caliber."

"How many people do you have?"

"Me, Patrice, Beryl and four heavily armed guards," Gunn answered. "Plus I hear this Spike guy can handle himself in a fight."

"You could say that," Willow replied wryly. "What about Connor? I hear he's a pretty good fighter himself."

"Well according to Angel and Buffy he can handle himself," said Gunn thoughtfully. "Whether he can do it in close quarters is another story. I just don't know if—"

At that moment one of the guards ran up to him. "Gunn, something may be happening."

"Willow, I'd better go." He hung up, walking with the guard. "What is it, Hanlon?"

"I just got a call from Lasky on the top floor." said Hanlon briskly. "He says that he saw some kind of movement in the alley behind the hotel."

"Human or non-human?"

"Couldn't tell from that high up," Hanlon said. "If it's human, they're incredibly swift and sure."

By now Gunn and Hanlon were walking towards the back door. "Get Beryl and Nunez down here now. They're probably getting ready to strike now. We should cut them off at the--"

Both men stopped moving as they heard glass shatter.

They whirled around.

And suddenly Gunn was back in the rebuilt Caritas as a large flaming trash can came hurtling through the glass doors of the balcony.

"GET DOWN!" Gunn shouted, pushing Hanlon as he hit the ground himself.

The barrel just missed both of them. Neither of them saw it strike the stairway. But they both saw the flames hit the banister and set it ablaze.

"Jesus Christ!" said Gunn. He yanked out the walkie-talkie that he was carrying. "They've broken into the lobby! I repeat they've broken into the lobby! Patrice! Nunez! Beryl! Get down here now!Andsomebody get the goddamn fire extinguisher before this fire hazard burns to the ground!"

Even as Gunn shouted, he saw figures running into the building. As they did, he noticed two things that didn't make him happy.

Some of the figures were real people.

And all of them were carrying guns.

**6:57:40/6:57:41/6:57:42**

As they climbed the fire escape, Kate couldn't help but stare at the smoke that was starting to come out of the window.

Cordelia/Jasmine noticed. "What's the matter? Don't tell me that your feeling sorry for those…people?" she said dryly.

A lot of things were bothering Kate, so she chose the one that she thought would raise the least objection. "Was the firebomb really necessary? My people could have just pinned them down with gunfire."

"You still don't get it, do you?" said Cordelia/Jasmine as she resumed climbing. "We're not playing paintball. This is for real, Kate. They are a threat to us which we will remove. Get it?"

Kate restrained herself only by concentrating on the fact that Angel and Buffy needed her to be compliant. They hadn't, however, said she had to be nice.

"I get it," she said coldly. "And don't ever call me Kate again."

Cordelia/Jasmine knew better than to bait the woman further so they and the rest of their people climbed the last level in silence. An emergency door and a bay window were waiting for them. "Now watch carefully, Lockley. You might learn something," said Cordelia/Jasmine. Very carefully she eased the window open. She turned around. "All right boys, let's get ready to--"

Before she could finish, a pair of very strong hands grabbed her and yanked her inside.

"Who the fuck--" Cordelia/Jasmine slammed against the wall, more surprised than overpowered. Then the owner of the hands pulled her to her feet.

"Fancy meeting you here," said Spike.

**6:59:57/6:59:58/6:59:59/7:00:00**


	20. 7PM to 8PM

Chapter 20

The following takes place between 7 PM and 8 PM on the day of the autumnal equinox

It was pretty clear that Cordelia (Spike couldn't quite think of her as Jasmine) was reeling, not just from the grab and slam but from being face to face with him. With or without a soul Spike had always thrived on keeping his enemies off balance and he had every intention of keeping it up now.

"Nice try, moron!" The voice sounded enough like Cordelia to make him unsure for a fraction of a second. "You call yourself a good guy and you sucker punch your friends? That soul really helped you."

_Fine_, Spike thought, _she wants to play this way, I'll humor her._ "Well I'm sorry but with all the shit flying around I wasn't sure which side you were on." He lowered a hand. "Had I known it was you I'd have done this!"

He saw Cordelia start to stand but before she could regain her balance, he kicked her legs out from under her and socked her in the jaw. "Nice try, bitch! Angel pulled the same shit on me first time I came to Sunnydale. I didn't fall for it then and I'm sure as hell not falling for it now."

"Can't blame a girl for trying." Cordelia/Jasmine clearly was dazed from the series of blows but he wasn't naïve enough to think that she was anywhere near defeated.

Spike assumed a fighting posture again. "If you know what's good for you, stay down."

Cordelia/Jasmine gave a small laugh. "Look who's all grown up. You know, "she said ironically, "back when you first came to town, who could have figured which side of the fence each of us would have ended up on."

Spike saw an opening. "Well, they might have been even up as to where I'd finally come down, but you…" He gave a harsh laugh of his own. "Everybody knew where you were going to end up. Once a vicious bitch, always a vicious bitch."

He knew the second he'd said it that he had struck gold. All good humor completely disappeared from Cordelia/Jasmine's face. "I hope you enjoyed your twelve hours of sunshine, because I'm going to make sure it's all you get."

With almost no warning she sprang to her feet and swung at him. But Spike's reflexes were at top condition and he easily dodged her blow.

"Guess that's what being in a coma does to your synapses," he said moving in. For the next thirty seconds they didn't speak-- only exchanged blows and kicks. Spike wasn't sure but he thought he was getting the better of her.

"You really got the nerve to take me out of the game?" Cordelia/Jasmine spoke with a calmness that Spike doubted was genuine.

"Way I see it I'm doing Angel a favor," he said as they circled each other. "I do this, he doesn't have to kill someone he cared about." He moved in.

"And you're just so compassionate," she said throwing another punch.

"It comes with a soul," Spike responded. "Something you'd never understand." Again he knew he had just gone for the verbal jugular.

She got rid of the reaction quickly but it was there. "Yeah, well," she moved back in and swung. "there's something that you've forgotten about being one of the bad guys."

"Which is?" Suddenly he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He threw himself to the left a split second before the shots were fired but even moving at top speed one of them him in the shoulder, another in the chest. He fell to the ground, reeling from the impact

"We cheat!" Cordelia/Jasmine said triumphantly, kicking him twice in the chest.

"How long were you going to just fucking stand there?" she shouted at someone right behind her.

"I thought you evil types liked the handle your own messes." The voice was female but Spike didn't recognize it.

Cordelia/Jasmine took a deep breath, as if she was trying to control herself. "Handle the vampire. You two come with me. We're going to get what we came for."

Spike wasn't sure which of the two men he was guarding she was talking about, but he started scrambling for the walkie-talkie in his jacket. After struggling, he managed to pull it out-- and found that one of the bullets had struck it. "Oh, that's just dandy." he muttered. He then struggled to get to his feet.

"If you know what's good for you, stay down." The woman who had spoken with Cordelia/Jasmine was now coming from directly above him.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked unenthusiastically.

"My name is Lockley."

Spike managed to get a look at her. Lockley was a woman in her late twenties, with dirty blond hair cut short and an atmosphere of authority about her. She also had a shotgun trained on Spike. The barrel looked the size of a cannon from his vantage point. "You do know that by killing me and helping her you're only going to make things bad for everyone," he said matter-of-factly.

"There is that possibility." Lockley spoke coolly and collectedly. _Must be some kind of cop,_ Spike thought to himself.

"Which is why I'm going to keep you alive."

"But you're not going to let me get up."

"Not yet." Lockley said. "But rest assured, your moment will come."

"Helps on the way?" asked Spike. And suddenly he sensed that someone else was there.

"It's just shown up," said the voice of the cavalry.

**7:09:38/7:09:39/7:09:40**

Cordelia/Jasmine and the others quickly reached the door that they had been looking for. It was pretty obvious because it was guarded by a woman whose whole bearing said "Slayer."

She saw the three of them coming and got ready to fight. Cordelia/Jasmine knew what was coming and leapt into a flying kick the second that she saw her. The Slayer's reactions were fast but not fast enough. Cordelia/Jasmine hit her a couple of times for good measure and before she could stand one of the men behind her tasered the Slayer. She was out of the picture.

"Tie her up but leave her alive." Cordelia/Jasmine wasn't sure if this was the person they had on the inside but she decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. In the meantime she'd get ready to do her bit of business. "You," she said to the man not tying up the Slayer, "get over her and get ready to shoot."

He acknowledged her and walked over to her. After mentally counting to three, Cordelia/Jasmine kicked the door open.

At the last second she sensed something and hit the ground just in time see a ball of light go whizzing over her head. Her helper wasn't so lucky as she could tell from the shout of pain. Slowly she got to her feet.

"I don't remember calling for room service," Lindsey said, prepared to fight.

**7:12:18/7:12:19/7:12:20/7:12:21**

The situation in the lobby of the building was starting to get out of hand. It wasn't nearly as bad as, say, the chaos at Wolfram & Hart earlier, but Gunn knew it wasn't the kind of thing you could grade on a curve. Only the facts of the here and now were important:

Fact 1: The Hyperion was a smoky haze. Before things had gotten too bad someone (he hadn't been able to see who) had managed to extinguish the fire on the banister and prevent it from causing the upstairs from going up in flames. Unfortunately, they hadn't been able to put out the burning barrel-- Gunn was pretty sure that the fire itself had some magical origins that might make it impossible to put out in traditional ways. They did have someone in the building who conceivably could put out the fire but that was becoming difficult because of:

Fact 2: The shooters in the lobby. It had become very clear less than a minute after their arrival that these people (whoever they were) were heavily armed and loaded for bear. Which they had demonstrated by opening fire almost immediately. Hanlon had taken a bullet in the shoulder and one had missed Gunn's head by a matter of inches. It was only luck that both of them had managed to find cover behind the front desk. Gunn was beginning to wish he hadn't been so fast to take the Angel-Slayer party line not to use firearms since most of their enemies could shrug off a bullet in the brain. Unfortunately, their villains had no moral conflicts about them. In fact, two or three of them had formed a line of fire between the entrance and the stairs, effectively cornering Gunn's forces. The line had also been more than efficient in keeping help from arriving. Coming from upstairs Nunez had taken one in the chest and Beryl had been hit in the leg.

Which left Hanlon and himself essentially pinned and ripe for the picking unless they could pull a rabbit out of their hats fast.

"How many shots do you have left?"

Hanlon had defied orders and brought a Ruger with him. "Five in the clip." he muttered. Spotting one of the vamps making a move he fired a warning shot. "Make that four."

"That's better than me." Gunn had a crossbow and only two arrows left. "Same number out there?"

"Still two vamps and three shooters." Hanlon looked back behind him. "Explain to me why they haven't just charged the desk."

Gunn sighed. "Because they're smarter than the average henchmen. They know that this way that have our forces divided."

"They're villains. Their whole MO is kill them all and let whatever god they worship sort it out."

"They're men…demons…whatever on a mission." Gunn said. "And right now that mission is to keep us down while their compadres snap up our friend upstairs."

"And what guarantee do we have that, when these turds have what they came for, they'll walk out and let us live?"

"Not very good," admitted Gunn.

"Great. What are our options?"

Gunn had been considering the problem too and could only see one solution. "The way I see it, we've got one alternative." He swallowed. "And that's make a charge."

Hanlon considered this. "Of the Light Brigade variety?"

It took a moment for Gunn to place the reference. "It's not the metaphor I'd use but you're probably right." Gunn didn't realize until he had said that he was admitting they were dead.

"Give me a few seconds." Hanlon took several, no doubt thinking of things Gunn didn't want to consider. Finally, he swallowed, looked at Gunn and said: "Count of three."

_Well,_ Gunn thought. _It's been a good run for me._ He swallowed. "One," he said quietly.

"Two," said Hanlon. They got ready to move.

"Three!"

Gunn and Hanlon looked at each other. Neither of them had said that word. Suddenly, though, the air was full of noise.

Gunn got to his feet to see pandemonium. Both the shooters and the vampires were whirling around in confusion trying to hit what appeared to be a couple of blurs. Gunn wasn't entirely sure what was happening but he did what he could to help his side. He waited for the blur to pass away from the nearest figure before firing one of his crossbow bolts at him. That figure fell to the ground, though who had hit him was anybody's guess.

In the space of a minute, it was over. The vampires had been dusted, all three humans were disarmed or unconscious.

"What the hell--" said Hanlon. "Did God just save us?"

"You know I've probably saved a thousand lives over the past seven years but no one's ever deified me before."

Gunn recognized the voice and turned to the stairs. "Buffy, where…when…how did you do this?"

"Angel, Wesley and I showed up twenty minutes ago. We were planning a strategic attack and it looked like you could use some help."

"You did this yourself?" Even though Hanlon knew who his bosses were, he was still struggling with what had happened.

"Actually, I can't take all the credit. " She pointed to the other side of the hall. There stood a tired, messy, but alive Connor.

**7:20:27/7:20:28/7:20:29**

"I've got to admit," said Lindsey as he ran out the hallway, "that considering everything that was done to bring you back I'm a little disappointed."

He was surprised. He hadn't had any trouble disposing of the man and the demon that Cordelia/Jasmine had brought with her. She was a bit problematic, but mainly because she was doing a good job defensively and not in attacking him. At first Lindsey had thought that Cordelia/Jasmine was sticking to the Hollywood formula that the bad guy attacks the hero only after all of his flunkies are dead. However, it had been three minutes since he had disposed of them and she still hadn't done anything.

"I mean I'm not saying that I'm unhappy about the way its going," Lindsey said as he gathered himself to throw another bolt of energy. "But if this is what the old team is doing to continue mutually assured destruction, they sure seem to have backed the wrong horse."

That got a reaction. Cordelia/Jasmine turned around and made her first direct attack-- though not one that he had expected. She pulled out a gun and fired three shots. Which might have been a problem if Lindsey hadn't thrown his ball of fire and turned them to ash.

It headed right towards Corselia/Jasmine, who did not seem alarmed. "Lacnera sumtrato," she said calmly. Which stopped the flames inches away from her head.

_Oh shit, _thought Lindsey.

"I was so hoping that you would do that," said Cordelia/ Jasmine. "I have a little magic in me. Not as much as Ethan or Willow but a goodly amount." She made a come hither gesture and the ball of fire glided into her hands. "However I needed a little pick-me-up to get the juices flowing, so to speak."

The ball glowed in her hands. There was a crackle of energy and then it and the ball were gone. "So thank you, Mr. McDonald for helping me get through part one of my plan. Not perfect but sometimes you have to sacrifice a pawn or two."

Lindsey figured that she was serious and got ready to throw another fireball. "I ain't scared of you, bitch." he said in his best "Ready for trial" voice.

"Brave words from the attorney. Obvious he doesn't know what's coming next." Suddenly she moved over to one side as an arrow just missed her face. She didn't seem disturbed, in fact she smiled upon seeing the shooter.

"Neither do you." said Angel.

**7:25:34/7:25:35/7:25:36/7:25:37**

"That was a pretty bad shot for you." said Cordelia/Jasmine calmly. "Itchy trigger-finger or are you really ready for this?"

It was a good question. For the past seven hours Angel had been trying to mentally prepare himself for just this situation, convincing himself that the woman he would be fighting was not the woman he had once loved. Now that the situation was here, he was feeling the slightest hesitation.

Which Cordelia/ Jasmine noticed. "At a loss for words?' she said smiling. "Well, let me see if I can help." She took a pose of horror and changed her voice to mock hysteria. " 'There must be some part of you deep inside that still remembers who you are.' That what you were thinking of?" She gave a harsh laugh. "I don't know how Buffy could've said that with a straight face."

That broke his paralysis. "She could because she loved me," he said calmly. "Just like I loved Cordelia."

"And I'm not her." Cordelia/Jasmine began walking towards him. "How sure are you of that, Angel? How do you know that somewhere in this body the real Cordelia Chase isn't still around, trying to break free?"

Angel, who had been considering just this scenario for a while, gave the only answer that he could. "It wouldn't matter if she was," he said as calmly as his voice would let him. "In order to keep the world safe, you have to die. I took too long doing it once and it nearly destroyed the world. It can not happen again. Co-- Cordelia would understand that." He raised the crossbow. "Now stand still."

"Such a noble sentiment from the champion." Cordelia/Jasmine adopted a mocking air that really did sound like the old Cordelia. "So you really think you can stop me. Two problems with that." She kept moving towards Angel. "One, I don't think you can. Two, I'm not going to let you."

Cordelia/Jasmine raised her hand gathering her magical energy. Angel swallowed but before he could fire, another bolt of light struck her in the small of her back.

"He may not be able to, but I have no problem with it."

Angel had been so focused on Cordelia/Jasmine that he had almost forgotten Lindsey was around.

"I never had problems with moral dilemmas." the ex-lawyer said. "Or fighting fair, for that matter."

Cordelia/Jasmine turned around. "You're going to wish you hadn't done that." She hadn't moved one step before a gunshot blast came from her right side. "Oh, not you too!" she said petulantly.

"Afraid so." Wesley had emerged from behind Angel, shotgun primed. "Give it up, Jasmine. You're outnumbered and outgunned."

"And I wouldn't count on getting any help for your loyal followers," Angel said. "We've managed to take care of whatever back-up you have."

For the first time the look of confidence on Cordelia/Jasmine's face began to fade. "Where the hell is Lockley?"

"Detective Lockley is otherwise occupied with the vampire you left her with." Wesley lied barefacedly. "If she makes it out, she might be able to help you."

"Although I really doubt that," said Angel. "Spike has a way with the ladies. Never much on subtlety, though."

In point of fact Kate was now halfway back to her car by now, setting the second part of Angel's plan into motion. Angel hoped for both their sakes that no one made any attempt to try and rescue her.

Cordelia/Jasmine considered. She looked to her left and to her right and saw no refuge. "Well I will admit that you and your gang of white hats do seem to have me in a bit of a corner." Then suddenly she smiled--and began to walk to the railing of the staircase. "But as anyone will tell you, even in a corner there are always two ways to get out."

Lindsey and Wesley fired at the same time but Cordelia/Jasmine moved fast-- leaping over the railing and falling to the stairs. It wasn't much of a drop--less then ten feet-- but she didn't even fall that far. Uttering a magic word, she stopped falling a foot away from hitting the stairway before leaping the rest of the distance

She began to run down the staircase but it soon became very clear that this too was a lost cause. For on the bottom of the stairway were Buffy, Gunn and Hanlon and they looked as pissed as the people on the stairway above.

"Well, this certainly sucks." Cordelia/Jasmine said and began running back up the stairs. Five stairs up, she stopped running and jumped. It took a few seconds for Angel to realize she wasn't there anymore. Unfortunately he ran into Gunn, Hanlon and Buffy during two of them.

The four of them fell back. It took them a few seconds to regroup.

"Yoo-hoo!" They all looked up to see Cordelia eight feet above them.

Standing on air.

"I told you that there were two ways to get out." she said cheerfully and began floating higher.

The second that she was in his sight Wesley fired his shotgun. He fired three shells-- all of which stopped inches away from her raised hand before dropping to the ground.

"You call that a gun?" she said cheerfully. She pulled out her own revolver. "This--" she fired twice at Wesley. "--is a gun."  
Wesley was certain that he was dead, which is why it shocked him when he didn't feel the bullets enter either his chest or his head, but in the leg and the shoulder.

He had no time to remark on this because Cordelia/Jasmine had now reached what she had come to this hotel to get-- Lindsey McDonald.

Lindsey was ready for her and began to prepare a ball of fire. However, she chanted very quickly in a foreign tongue. Before he could fire, the ex-attorney realized that he could not move his arms or his legs. She had paralyzed him.

"You see," she said as she began floating towards him. "once I get my pump primed I can easily regained what I might have lost." Her grin was predatory. "And you, Mr. McDonald, are about to see how easy it is to lose what took years to gain."

"I'll show you what's easy, you bitch." Lindsey scowled.

"You say that like it's a bad thing. " She grabbed Lindsey's arm. "Well we have places to go and things to do. And I hate the service at this hotel, so we'll be going. Ta-ta for now, motherfuckers."

And with that she and Lindsey flew right the window-- which was still shut-- releasing a ball of energy that knocked everyone down.

**7:37:14/7:37:15/7:37:16/7:37:17**

Faith had no idea what was going on at the Hyperion and even if she had known, she probably wouldn't have changed her strategy. She had enough on her plate as it was.

Immediately after learning that someone in Angel-Slayer was working with Wolfram & Hart she had realized all of the potential repercussions. She had called Fred, who was already doing her best to see if she could figure out who this traitor was.

Fred called her back half an hour later to say that she had talked with Willow, Andrew and Dawn, and that they could only narrow the field to twenty possibles-- six Slayers and fourteen Watchers that had no experience with the old Watcher's Council. Of the twenty, three of the Slayers and nine of the Watchers were at the Angel-Slayer building right now, and Fred had said that she and the others would do their best to keep them as out of the loop as they could. Faith thought about mentioning something about barn doors and escaping horses but decided that yelling would do no good.

She amused herself by listening to her prisoner, Hendricks, tell almost everything he knew. Unfortunately most of it was stuff that they had already learned. Faith had considered threatening him some more but she figured -- correctly, as it would turn out-- that Hendricks was just another low level flunky and had no idea of the greater features of what was happening today.

Finally, after realizing that she done all she could, she decided to try and see what was happening at the location the mortally wounded Ethan Rayne had given her: Venice Beach. She knew that the others probably wouldn't be wild about her going alone, but she also knew there wasn't anyone else they could send to help her. Their resources were spread too thin or too far away.

But when she had gotten there and did a reconnaissance sweep, she had run into a problem she hadn't expected. She had just completed her third run around the beach-- and nobody seemed to be here. Not just villains, but no one at all. Granted it had been dark for almost an hour but it was a warm night and this was LA. She had expected to see somebody there.

This seemed familiar and then she remembered the raising that had taken place nearly eight hours ago and how the bad guys had managed to elude the rest of the world from noticing that something big was going down.

She picked up an empty soda can and threw it at the horizon. She had a good arm and the can flew nearly fifty feet. It would have gone further except that as soon as it hit what appeared to be an empty space, there was a flash of light. After Faith blinked, she saw that the can had been burned black.

"That's all I need," Faith said to herself as she pulled out her cell phone. It was then that the third possibly dangerous thing happened. The phone on the other end rang five times before it was picked up. "Christ, you think I was trying to sell Amway," she said half in jest.

"I'm sorry Faith," said Andrew on the other end, "but a lot is going on and all at once." He gathered himself. "Are you at Venice Beach?"

"Yes. And I know you've gotta be getting tired of hearing this, but we have another problem."

"Now what?" Andrew sighed.

"Remember the magic barrier they had when they raised Cordelia?"

"No. I wasn't there." Andrew sounded a little more impatient than usual.

"Well, there was one there and there's one here. And I'm pretty sure if I step through it I get hickory smoked."

Andrew sighed. "How did you get through the last one?"

"Giles worked some magic." Suddenly Faith grew sober remembering where Giles was right now. "Which I guess is out."

Andrew grew somber as well. "Yeah. Well I guess--"

Suddenly there was noise on the other end. "Hang on a second." Andrew left the line for a good twenty seconds. When he came back, he sounded even more dire. "Faith, listen carefully. Find a place to hide right now."

"Wait--what about getting in?"

"Faith, the way things are going, you may be able to get inside that hideout very soon." Andrew said swiftly. "Someone is going to be coming through the front door any minute. And if she does, you may be able to foil their plans altogether. Get it?"

Faith didn't, but she got the tone. "Got it."

"Good." Andrew hung up and Faith started looking for cover.

**7:44:31/7:44:32/7:44:33**

The second Andrew hung up he walked over to the main room where Willow, Fred and Dawn had gathered. He hadn't been kidding when he said that a lot was happening, and most of it had to do with the Hyperion.

Due to the complications of what first Kate and then Cordelia/Jasmine had told them about having inside people, they had severely reduced the already limited number of people working at Angel-Slayer Inc. They had been arguing over who should be monitoring the situation at the hotel. As a result Leonard, who had been working doing other things, did not look at the videotape projection until five minutes after the attack had started.

When he did, they had tried to get some of the people they had working around the perimeter of the hotel to assist the others, only to find that two of them were dead and the others couldn't get in because they were pinned down by snipers. It took nearly half an hour to get fresh men in, and by the time they got there it was all but over. The new troops had arrived just in time to see Cordelia/Jasmine and Lindsey fly off a la Mary Poppins into the night.

They sent someone to track them but this concerned them less than other issues. As Fred put it, "Even the dumbest people are going to notice people flying through the air with the greatest of ease." Finding them would not be a problem. There were other issues.

"What's the officer's name?" Fred asked as calmly as she could manage. "What precinct does he work for?" There was a pause as Fred punched the name into Wolfram & Hart's LAPD data bank and checked the screen. "All right. I'll make some phone calls. Keep them busy." She hung up as Andrew walked over. "I guess this is one of those times having deputy police commissioners on our payroll works in our favor."

"How the hell can anyone in authority smooth this over?" said Andrew. "We've got people dead over there."

Fred looked as if she was going to bite his head off-- everybody's fuse was getting shorter-- then she reconsidered. "Right now, it's only one beat cop. With Kate giving us a hand we should be able to delay dealing with this."

Andrew shook his head. "We're gonna have a shitload of stuff to get through when this day is over."

"I know, but right now all I care about is getting through this…mess." Fred said, rubbing her eyes.

Dawn walked up. "In the general feeling of spirit-killing, I bring even more bad news."

"What now?" said Fred tiredly.

"I think I know who one of the inside people is. I went through the list of people who we suspected and only one of those people was at the Hyperion when the sky fell." She shook her head.

Andrew didn't want to but he asked anyway. "Who is it?"

Dawn sighed. "Patrice."

**7:50:44/7:50:45/7:50:46/7:50:47**

If the chaos and the confusion in the Hyperion had dissipated since Cordelia/Jasmine and Lindsey had made their dramatic exit, it wasn't by much. About the only positive thing that had happened over the past fifteen minutes was that they had finally managed to put out the fire at the base of the stairs. Otherwise it was pretty clear that the forces of good had been hit, and hit hard.

Buffy was only beginning to get a clear assessment of the damage. Two members of the security force had died: Nunez had succumbed from a bullet to the chest and Hanlon, who had been killed when a piece of glass from the skylight had pierced his neck. Three others were pretty badly wounded: Patrice had been hit with a stun gun, Beryl had been shot in the thigh and Wesley had been shot in both the shoulder and the leg. All of them needed medical attention and Gunn had already called for their medical team which would observe the debris and carnage without asking any questions. There were also a lot of injured members of, what Buffy guessed could be called, the assault team, many of whom she herself had injured. But she and Connor had done their best to make sure that none of them had died.

A potentially far more dangerous problem had risen when it became clear that Angel-Slayer had finally done something they had managed to avoid over the day: the police were on the scene. Admittedly it was only one cop and Gunn (whose job it was to deal with these things) had gone out front to 'handle' this particular problem-- if you could convince a cop to ignore a smashed in front door, smoke coming out of the lobby, bullet holes in the staircase and desk, a shattered window on the top floor, and a rather sizable number of injured people. It was one of the things that Wolfram & Hart was supposed to help them with and Buffy hoped that it would help them now.

But all the deaths and injuries, combined with the now greatly increased possibility of the world ending, didn't bother Buffy as much as something that Cordelia/Jasmine had done before her departure. She was now talking with the man it had happened to and who understood the ramifications as well as she did.

"So she levitates back up to the floor." Buffy said to Wesley. "You fire. She takes out her gun. And…" She looked at him. "Did she hurry at all?"

Despite the fact that he had to be in pain (the kits they had in the hotel contained Percodan but she had no idea if the dosage was high enough) Wesley shook his head. "She had… plenty of time. Had me… dead in her sights. No reason that she couldn't have killed me."

Buffy rubbed her forehead. "There's something we're not seeing."

"Buffy, I realize this but we do have to consider--" He tried to raise his head but stopped after only an inch. "--how important this is."

"Important?" Buffy forgot Wesley's condition and leaned over. "This involves who's driving in her head: Jasmine or Cordelia. You don't think it's important."

"In one sense it matters a great deal. But in a cold-blooded sense, it doesn't." He managed to raise his head. "We have to stop this apocalypse. Regardless if Cordelia has some control or not, Jasmine is going to use her power to bring it forth. She has to be stopped."

Buffy considered. "I know Wesley. But--" She shook her head as if to clear the cobwebs. "I can't go on killing my friends. I just don't have it in me any more. There has to be a point where you just say…enough."

Wesley seemed puzzled by this statement but before he could say anything further, two things happened. The first thing was that one of the paramedics came over to both of them. "Mr. Wyndham-Price, I understand the severity of the situation you are involved in but you really need to get to the hospital now."

Wesley didn't put up any argument. He looked at Buffy. "Whatever you think may or may not be happening with Jasmine, its probably better that you don't tell Angel. He's got more than enough on his plate with Connor and Spike; he doesn't need this too." Then the paramedics carried him off.

Buffy might have protested as well but then Angel walked up to her. "We've got a problem," he said without preamble.

"When don't we have one?" she said wryly. "What is it now?"

"Kate was supposed to call us when she was at the rendezvous point with Spike."

Part of the thought behind Angel's plan involved Kate showing up there with the vampire-- who, according to her, had an important role in what was about to follow. Buffy had been uncomfortable about this part and this was one of the reasons. "You know its possible with all the bullets and arrows flying around her cell phone got damaged." she said as calmly as she could manage.

"Given our luck tonight I suppose that might have happened," said Angel. "But I don't know how else we're going to--"

Gunn appeared. "Have either of you seen the ambulance that took Patrice?" he said without any introduction.

Buffy and Angel looked at each other. "No. Why?"

"I just got off the phone with Willow. She says there is an excellent chance that Patrice was Wolfram & Hart's insider."

At that exact second they heard sirens start up.

"Oh shit." Buffy and Angel said at the same time.

The three of them started running. Buffy and Angel were fast but not that fast. By the time they reached the street corner, the ambulance was nearly half a block away.

"Call Willow. Tell her to do whatever it takes to track that ambulance down." Buffy whirled around to Angel. "Talk to everyone here. Find out where the hell Kate is going _now_." She then started running for the car, hoping she had the keys, praying that they hadn't yet squandered all her luck.

At first Faith barely noticed the tingle. Then the electricity in the air grew greater until she thought she see the glass on the beach glowing. Hoping that the car she was in provided enough cover, she gently peeked out from over the windshield.

And saw something that almost made her jaw drop. Nearly a hundred yards away, two figures, one female and one male were descending from the sky. There was a look on the woman's face-- which she barely recognized as that of Cordelia's -- of pure hatred mixed with triumph that oozed evil.

And the worst part was it looked natural on the face of a woman they had once considered a champion.

**7:59:57/7:59:58/7:59:59/8:00:00**


	21. 8PM to 9PM

Chapter 21

The following takes place between 8 PM and 9 PM on the day of the Autumnal Equinox

"Thank you for choosing Trans-God airlines for all your travel needs," said Lindsey as he and Cordelia/Jasmine began to float down from what was one of the oddest trips to Venice Beach he had taken in a life that contained more than its share of strange experiences. "Please return your arms and legs to their upright position and remember to remove your brain from the overhead compartments."

Cordelia/Jasmine looked at Lindsey strangely. "For someone whose life is in a very perilous position you're awfully cheerful," she said as her feet touched the sand. His, however, did not. "Do you feel the hangman's noose tightening?"

"I know that I should be afraid," Lindsey said calmly. "After all, I'm probably closer to death than I've been since-- well, since Angel left me to the fangs of Darla and Drusilla. But you want to know something weird?" He looked into her eyes. "I wasn't afraid of dying then and I'm not afraid of it now."

"Then you really are as dumb as you look. And you don't even have the Brooks Brothers suit to back it up." That sounded so much like the real Cordelia Chase that Lindsey looked at her in surprise. "What? I say something funny?"

Something that Lindsey had been thinking about since they had made their stunning exit out of the Hyperion clicked. It was a long shot but, considering his position, anything was worth a try.

"No, Jasmine,_ you_ didn't say anything funny," he said as casually as he could manage. "But I wonder if maybe _she _did."

Cordelia/Jasmine turned to face him. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm saying maybe you're feeling more like your old self."

"Listen to me, you little cocktail sausage..." The former goddess still sounded only mildly annoyed. "…I don't know if you missed what happened the last half-hour, so here it is. Cordelia Chase has left this dimension. I am driving this car. Me and only me. Don't think you can reason with me."

"Well, I did see that little fireworks show and that's what's convinced me that Cordelia Chase is still around. I mean you didn't kill Angel and you could have. You didn't kill Wesley and he was less than ten feet from you."

"Shut up." Her voice was growing uneven.

"Hell, with whatever power you got from me, I bet you could have torched the Hyperion with a wiggle of your nose." Lindsay thought that he saw something flickered out of the corner of his eye but didn't give anything away. "You could have leveled Angel-Slayer and you just gave them a bloody paw."

"You're just trying to trick me into doing something stupid." Cordelia/Jasmine's voice was shaking now. "Make me kill you now, so we can't use you for the big show."

"Maybe," he said almost serenely. "But maybe I won't have to take one for the team. Maybe you've already started down the other road. Maybe--"

"Enough!" Both of them turned at the sharp voice. "God, were you just going to listen to him rant?"

Harmony was speaking to them both. Her voice sounded distorted, probably from whatever magic was being used to keep the place from being seen. She looked extremely pissed.

"Christ, you're one of the elder gods and you don't recognize an attack like this?" Harmony shook her head. "What kind of deity are you?"

Harmony's attack hit Cordelia/Jasmine like a bucket of ice water. When Lindsey turned his attention back to the ex-goddess, she had regained control of herself. She pointed her finger at the force shield and a small entrance opened. "Nice try," she said as two vampires came out to guard Lindsey. "For that, you will suffer more."

Lindsey knew that she'd won this round but he had seen the chink in Cordelia/Jasmine's armor.

Hopefully, whoever else was out there had seen it too.

**8:06:11/8:06:12/8:06:13**

Ever since she and Angel had gotten in his car to chase down the ambulance Patrice was in, Buffy had been extremely quiet. It concerned Angel far more than loud anger would have. Loud anger could be handled. Cold rage was a lot harder to handle.

So, knowing that he was probably the only person who could talk Buffy down, he kept his eyes on the road and started talking.

"You're thinking about how you had to go through this with Faith, aren't you?"

Buffy didn't respond.

"Come on. Being betrayed by a Slayer, someone you thought you knew--"

"I didn't know Patrice." Buffy said flatly. "Which is good. That'll make this easier."

Angel knew the ramifications of what she was saying so he maintained his even tone. "Buffy, I know what your first impulse is. And, as somebody who's been on both sides of the coin, I gotta tell you that you can't listen to it. Otherwise you will do something that you will regret."

Buffy considered. "Why are you defending her, Angel?" she asked calmly. "This woman was lying to our faces for weeks. She's probably been helping Wolfram & Hart since this began, doing stuff that could really hit all of us hard." Buffy looked at him. "You might even be wiped out of existence because of her help, and you're telling me not to follow my gut?"

Angel knew that there was more to what Buffy was saying, but he spotted the ambulance before he could reply.

So did Buffy. "Is that the license plate Willow gave you?" Willow had used her computer skills to help them track down the ambulance.

"Yes. Buffy--"

"Get right behind them." she said calmly.

Angel considered his options and quickly worked out that there was no good way for this thing between Buffy and Patrice to end. The best way to proceed was to let Buffy catch up with Patrice and try to reason with her then.

So he drove until he was right behind the ambulance. "Buffy, what--"

He stopped as he realized that somehow Buffy was standing on the hood of the car. "What the fuck do you think your doing!"

Buffy didn't respond, gave no indication that she'd even heard. Using all of his will, he managed to focus on the road ahead and not swerving.

Suddenly she was on the running board of the ambulance. Before he had time to process that she'd actually jumped, she was slamming on the door. This got the drivers attention-- he pulled over to the side of the road. Somehow Buffy managed to hang on to the running board.

"Jesus Christ what the fuck are you thinking?" the driver shouted as he walked over to the back of the car. "You crazy--"

Buffy didn't give him a chance to finish his sentence before grabbing him by the collar. "Open the doors. Now."

Angel pulled up behind the ambulance. "Buffy!"

She gave no sign that she heard, focusing all her attention on the medic. Angel knew how effective that stare could be, and in a matter of moments the driver was opening the doors.

Not even the sight of Patrice on a stretcher was enough to make her slow down. She put her face right next to hers. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now," she said in a voice that left no doubt that she was serious.

"I'm calling the police," the paramedic said shakily.

"That will just make me do it faster."

Angel had only heard Buffy use a tone this cold once before -- when she had fought him before the raising of Acathla. Buffy was going for the kill.

There was only one thing he could do. He came up next to her. "Patrice, there's only one way that you get out of this. And that is by telling us everything you know."

For a moment Angel was sure that Patrice would deny knowing what Buffy was talking about, a decision that would almost certainly get her killed. Instead she looked at Buffy. "What guarantee do I have that you won't kill me anyway?"

"This is a really bad time to bring up trust."

Angel tried to sound reasonable. "You have to trust us because there's no other way you getting out of this."

"Oh yes there is." Both Angel and Buffy recognized what that tone meant and both of them reacted quickly. But Patrice had fooled them just enough so that when she tore free of her restraints and started fighting she managed to get a few precious seconds on them-- just enough time.

"Good thing about being a Slayer. " she said calmly. "You heal fast." And with that she started to assault Buffy and Angel. Not enough to knock them down, but enough to knock them back long enough to give her time to leap into the front seat of the ambulance and pull out.

Angel and Buffy didn't even speak, they just got back into the car--knowing that things had again just gotten more complicated.

**8:15:38/8:15:39/8:15:40/8:15:41**

Spike hadn't gotten all of the reasons why Kate Lockley was involved, but he knew enough to realize that she knew more than she was telling. He had also gleaned enough from Kate's behavior that she wasn't going to completely go along with Angel's plan. So he had been understandably reluctant to get in Kate's car and drive off to wherever they were supposed to meet after the assault at the Hyperion. And now, after they had been driving for nearly half an hour, he was becoming more convinced that she was doing something to fuck them over.

He knew that he didn't have to go along with her. It would be an easy trick to smash open a window and leap out of the car, with little risk to himself. He also knew that he could probably force the information out of Kate if he had to. But, as the day had stretched from sunrise to sunset, he had become more and more sure that this was his second chance. He was damn sure that he wasn't going to blow it now.

So he decided to try subtlety. That trait had never really appealed to him much over the last one hundred and twenty years, but he figured at this juncture he could be flexible.

"So, Lockley," he started, "you're clearly not going to meet Angel."

"What was your first clue?"

"But unless you're feeling particularly suicidal, you're not about to join up with schizo-Cordy either," he continued. "So, are you headed off to Mexico? And if you are, why have you decided to take me with you?" He paused. "Not that a shot of tequila wouldn't hit the spot 'bout now."

"Be fitting for a worm like you." Kate was still far too composed.

"Hey, I just came from a four-month stay in Tartarus. I'm happy to be going anywhere. You, on the other hand, look like shit."

Her voice was stern. "Three of my people are probably dead and the people I've been working with know that I've double-crossed. Which means my other friends are in danger. Forgive me for not being chipper."

"That's a little better. If it weren't for the fact that you went into this with your eyes open, I might be able to feel sorry for you." Spike's voice became a little firmer. "But that still doesn't solve your problem. "

"In case you haven't noticed, I can't handle my problems any longer." Kate was beginning to sound tense. "Thanks to your friends, everything I've been working for is turning to shit. That leaves me with one option."

"Which is?"

"I've contacted Kilner." At Spike's blank look, she added: "The government man who helped finance my operation."

The word "government" did not reassure Spike that things would turn out all right. "What can he do?" he asked.

"It's not so much what he can do as what I can get from him," Kate said calmly. "I'm going to pump him for everything he knows and figure out exactly how to stop whatever the hell is being planned tonight."

"And you think he'll just bend to your powerful will?" Spike said sardonically.

"That's the reason you're here."

Spike blinked. "Excuse me?"

"In order to pump this guy, I'm going to need someone strong, ruthless, and willing to do anything." A hint of lightness-- there and gone in an instant-- came into her voice. "Sounds right up your alley."

He thought about it. "You know, under other circumstances, we could've been friends. As it is--" Spike sighed. "Where are we meeting this Kilner?"

"Pacific Ocean Park. Near Venice Beach."

**8:23:29/8:23:30/8:23:31**

In the past Willow had been very good at walking and chewing gum at the same time. Multi-tasking was a necessary skill when you were fighting the First Evil, or living on a Hellmouth. However, given everything that had been happening in the past three hours, it was becoming harder for her-- and, for that matter the rest of the people at the Wolfram & Hart building-- to keep juggling the five hundred or so things that seemed to be happening simultaneously. It was becoming clear to everybody that they were going to have to start prioritizing things _now _and start letting the smaller things-- if any of their problems could be called small-- slide. No matter what some of them thought.

"We can't just let Patrice get away!" Buffy said indignantly over the phone.

"I didn't say let her get away, I said let her go _for now._ " Willow spoke as calmly as she could, but she expected she'd be yelling soon.

"Do you realize how big a security problem this will cause? Not to mention the fact that she's at least partially responsible for you being kidnapped and drained!"

"I know that. I want to beat her within an inch of her life as much as you do. And I'm going to make sure that our satellites and security cameras track her down. But, Buffy," she took a deep breath "we have a crisis going on. We can't have our best Slayer and our champion spending their time tracking down one rogue agent when an apocalypse is almost upon us."

Buffy considered. "You think I'm the best Slayer?" Before Willow could react she added: "Kidding, kidding."

Willow was glad that Buffy was joking now. "Come on Buffy. We've got the footage of Cordelia/Jasmine's plane from our sources and they show her headed southeast. We should be able to pinpoint her location in a few minutes. And when we do we need you to snatch her up."

Before Buffy could respond, Fred ran over calling her name. "What is it now?"

"It's Faith." Fred responded. "She says that she needs to talk to you right now."

Willow heaved another sigh. "Now is becoming a very busy time," she muttered. She handed her phone to Fred. "I need you to give Buffy and Angel the information from the last satellite data. Got it?"

"Sure thing." Fred started walking over to her computer. Willow rubbed a hand over her face then picked up. "Yes?"

"Jesus Willow, I've been trying to get in touch with you for twenty minutes!" Faith sounded jazzed.

"I've been a little busy here--"

"Well, I'm pretty sure that what I have beats anything else going on," Faith said sounding serious.

"What have you got?" asked Willow.

"I know where Jasmine and Harmony are right now."

Willow got tuned in to the conversation in a hurry. "Where?"

"Venice Beach, about a mile away from the Marina Del Rey."

"How sure are you that they're there?"

"Well, seeing Lindsey and Cordelia descend from the sky was a pretty big hint." Faith said dryly.

This could be it. "Do you need backup?" she asked.

"Backup would be nice, but there's a bigger problem. You see standing between me and whatever the hell is going on is a powerful magic barrier. "

"How powerful?"

"It will probably kill me the second I touch it. I need someone or something that can knock it down and right now there's only one person who can do that."

Willow had been afraid something like this would come up. "Faith, they took a lot of magic energy from me when I was held prisoner. I've managed to recharge a little, but I'm still not sure I'm a hundred percent." She blinked several time. "Plus there's a lot of proof that Jasmine may be able to pull the same trick with a lot less trouble."

"That may be true, but we've just about run out of time. Jasmine and Lindsey arrived almost half an hour ago. Which means this could happen any time now." Faith swallowed. "It's you or itsnothing."

Willow slowly found herself walking towards the window. She looked out into the night sky, as if hoping for some kind of sign.

Andrew walked up to her. "Will? What's up?" he asked plaintively.

Willow turned to him. "Call Buffy and Angel. Tell them we have a location for Harmony and Jasmine."

"Where?" asked Andrew.

Willow hesitated. "Just have them call me in a minute. Tell them-- that I'll meet them there."

**8:31:33/8:31:34/8:31:35/8:31:36**

The more time that he spent in the hospital, the more Xander felt detached from reality. He knew that Robin was lying in a bed with tubes hanging out of him while doctors tried to slow or stop something that was irreversible. He knew that, while he sat here trying to comfort him, people were dying, vamps were being dusted and the world was probably coming closer to its end. He knew that there were guards in the hospital now, making sure that nothing happened to him or Robin, though how they could stand against what might be coming was a question Xander didn't want answered. But despite all that, it still seemed to be an abstract concept to him, that nothing was going on and everything would turn out all right somehow.

Wesley's arrival at the hospital changed that. The paramedics had no doubt brought him here because Kildaire was a Wolfram & Hart controlled hospital. However, Xander didn't know if his being here was some roundabout way of the universe saying that it was okay to go back into the field. Once he would have dismissed such an idea as foolish, but he was beginning to wonder.

Right now, Wesley was still busy processing what had happened to the man in the bed next to him.

"And you're sure there's nothing more that they can do?" he asked Xander.

"Doctors are trying every anti-toxin therapy that they can," Robin said. Both of the other men looked at him in surprise. "Hey I'm not dead yet. And there's never been anything wrong with my hearing."

Wesley shook his head. "Those bloody bastards!" he swore. "They can't just kill us. They have to drag it out so they can wring all of us dry."

"Wes, I thought you were going to be okay," Xander said.

"I'll live, which is all right. But at least three other people had to die in order to allow this to happen." Wesley laid his head back down on the pillow. "And I still can't figure out why she didn't just kill me right there."

Suddenly, it registered in Xander's head. "Cordelia did this? " he asked.

"No, Jasmine did." But there was an uncertainty in Wesley's voice that Xander didn't like. Before he could ask further questions, though, his phone began to ring.

"Yeah?" he said quietly.

"It's Fred." There was a pause before she continued unevenly. "Look, I realize that you've been doing important stuff there, but I-- I think we could use your help."

For a moment Xander gathered himself. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Willow is leaving to try and help Faith…handle Jasmine. Buffy and Angel are en route. We're running out of people we can trust around here and we need all the help we can get."

Suddenly the hospital room, which had seemed merely oppressive before, was completely unbearable. He started walking out. "What are you going to do about Cordelia?" he asked.

"Cordy… Cordy's gone." Fred said simply. "We have no choice but to proceed as if she isn't here anymore."

Feeling like he was a thousand miles away, Xander said: "Okay. All right. I'll get there as soon as I can." He hung up.

He turned around. "I'm sorry, guys, but they just called and said they needed my help. Robin--"

"It's okay. Do what you have to do." Robin said bravely.

"Stop them. Whatever it takes." said Wesley.

He barely heard their words of encouragement. He needed to get moving.

But first he had something important that he needed to do.

**8:38:22/8:38:23/8:38:24**

"You sure that he's going to meet you here?" Spike asked.

Kate sighed. "This is the location that he gave me when I called him an hour ago."

"And you're sure that he wouldn't double-cross you." he asked.

"He works for the government, of course he's going to double cross me." Kate replied calmly. "But with the world going to hell around him, he's going to have to see what I have to offer him before he does it." Now she smiled grimly. "They always dot their i's and cross their t's when they do this kind of thing. That's how I'm going to get him."

Even if he hadn't been at the center of this plan, Spike still wouldn't have liked it. He thought that Kate was still thinking like a cop, which was almost certainly get her killed in his world. Furthermore, he had seen how the government handled its undead affairs, and their way of thinking made certain that someone was going to get caught in the middle.

But before he could put any voice to this, a car appeared on the horizon. His vision was so good that it only took him a few seconds to see that it was a black Lincoln town car. "Why do all these government blokes drive in rides that are going to get noticed?" he asked.

"I don't know. Maybe they've seen too many episodes of the X-Files." Kate turned toward Spike. "Now stay quiet."

Spike decided to let discretion be the better part of valor. However, he mentally readied himself for action.

The car pulled to the side of the road. When the headlights were shut off Spike had his second inkling that this was a bad idea. Kilner-- if that's who he was-- got out of the back seat. Which meant he had at least a driver, and probably a heavily armed one.

It bothered Kate as well. "Stay where you are." she said taking out her gun.

"What, no trust?" said the man, sounding just the slightest bit amused. He did, however, stop about three feet away from the car.

"Let's just say my faith in humanity has been tested today."

Kate walked the rest of the distance and frisked the government man. Finding nothing she gestured towards the driver's seat. "What about him?"

Kilner sighed. "Come out Steve. "

The driver got out too. Kate walked over and frisked him too. This time, however, she found something-- a handgun. "You didn't expect us to come completely unarmed, did you?" the man said.

"'Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.' Don't they teach you that in your line of work, Kilner?" Kate began walking around to the other side of the car. "Spike, get over here."

Spike decided that getting closer to the others might be in his best interest. He began walking towards them.

"All right, you've brought us all her in the dead of night. What do you have to report?" said Kilner.

"You sold me a bill of goods." Kate said calmly.

"And how did we do that Miss Lockley? " Kilner said calmly. "We helped finance your operation, we helped you get a man on the inside in Wolfram & Hart, we warned you about this apocalypse scenario. Where exactly did we break our word?"

"You didn't tell me that the game plan involved people that I knew. Or that they were going to screw around with the fabric of time."

"We only told you what you needed--" The rest of what was being said faded away in Spike's head. Because of the glare of the headlights and his focus on Kilner, he had not gotten a close look at the driver until he was six feet away.

And recognized that it was Thompson.

"Kate, look out!" he yelled. As he began to run towards Kilner and Kate, several things happened. Kate fired her gun at Kilner, who fell to the ground. Thompson ducked behind the car. And a window in the back seat opened and someone pulled out an odd looking gun.

Spike saw it and turned but the gun fired a blast of electricity. It hit him in a way that felt very familiar. Before he lost consciousness, he heard a gun shot.

The man who Kate knew as Kilner walked around to the other side of the car. "So this is the famous Hostile 17." he said to Thompson. "Doesn't look all that fierce from here."

"They never do at this angle." Thompson looked at him. "You take care of Lockley?"

"She's been handled." "Kilner" shook his head. "I gotta say I don't like how we had to do this. Lockley was an investment of a lot of time and money. And if I hadn't been wearing my Kevlar vest I'd be dead right now." He looked at Thompson. "This had better be worth it."

"It is."

The shooter and Thompson began guiding Spike back to the car. "You'd better bring him back."

"One last thing and then we're done with him."

**8:46:48/8:46:49/8:46:50/8:46:51**

"Explain it to me again."

Sahjhan looked at Harmony curiously. "Are you trying to prove to me what they say about blondes is true?" he said, only part in jest.

"Fine," Harmony said, sounding pissed, "mock the person who set you free, who woke you up." She gestured towards Cordelia/Jasmine "Who assembled all the nice vampires and demons that have been laying down their un-lives since this whole shebang got started. I set you free to do something extraordinary today and now that we're within sight of the finish line, everybody's dicking around. So explain to me again why we're taking so long to do this."

Sahjhan took a deep breath. "A temporal bend is a tricky thing to do. It depends on the position of the earth, the position of the stars and the person or persons you're trying to affect with the bend."

Harmony nodded. "That is why we had to wait until today to do it. I get that. But last I checked you had the power to manipulate time and space."

"Yes, for me to travel through it. Alone. Those higher up the food chain don't like it when lower beings like myself do that. And as neutral as they try to stay, completely removing someone from the timeline is the kind of thing that would cause them to step in and snuff me out." Sahjhan looked towards the horizon. "Hence my general skittishness."

"Which is why we needed you." Harmony gestured towards Cordelia/Jasmine. "Because an old one like yourself is capable of clouding their eyes."

"Right. Of course," Cordelia/Jasmine said sardonically, "if you had managed to restore me to my old body it would make all of our jobs a lot easier."

"Yes, and if you'd killed Angel when you'd had the chance, this wouldn't be necessary at all." said Harmony. "Let's deal with what we do have and not with what we should have."

Cordelia/Jasmine sighed dramatically. "In any case, if I drain enough magical power from this--" she made a disgusted gesture "--lawyer, I should be able to generate enough power to complete Sahjhan's manipulation of time and space."

"All right. That explains your purpose." Harmony spoke as she gestured towards Lindsey. "Now tell me again why we needed Spike."

"There is a balance and symmetry to everything, Harmony," Sahjhan said. "You can't just remove a person without consequences. It might end the universe without intervention from the powers. A void is left. In order to do what your asking we have to fill it, even if it is only for an instant. You want Spike removed from the timeline, you have to have one in order to fill that place, even if it's only for a second. That's why we need him." Sahjhan held his hands out. "Understand?"

Harmony hesitated. "Yes," she said. "Seems logical enough."

"Oh please!" Everyone turned towards Lindsey. "You're kidding right? If I could move my hands I'd be making the cuckoo gesture. This plan is so elaborate and unsound it makes 'burn the village in order to save it' look like a Nobel Prize Winner!"

"This from the man who used to work at Convoluted Plans R Us?" Cordelia/Jasmine said, walking towards Lindsey. "Bringing Darla back to turn Angel dark? That was a real barn burner."

"Forget the nature of the plan," said Harmony harshly. "Let's just execute it."

At that moment her cell phone rang. "Yes? Thompson, where the hell are you?" She paused. "You have him." She walked towards Sahjhan. "We're just about ready," she told him

Harmony stopped. "Then you make damn sure you handle it." She hung up. "Thompson will have Spike here in fifteen minutes. He also tells me it's very likely that someone from the good guys is close right now."

"How close?" asked Cordelia/Jasmine.

"Close enough to give us trouble." Harmony turned toward them. "And I'm running out of minions."

"This is a lousy time for this to happen." said Sahjhan.

Harmony fixed him with an evil glare. "That's one thing about Buffy and her crew. They're very efficient at dusting vamps." Harmony took out her cell. "But I've been saving the best for last. And it's time that they entered, stage left."

**8:54:05/8:54:06/8:54:07**

Faith figured she had probably walked the perimeter of the beach at least three times. Aside from the energy field, all she had found was nothing, nothing and more nothing. Which was beginning to bother her more than an army of vamps would.

Normally she would have considered this a good sign. She had stopped counting how many vamps, demons and assorted villains Angel-Slayer had dusted already but she figured that they had to be in triple digits. She also knew that unless Harmony and the others had access to their own personal Hellmouth ( which Faith wouldn't have put past the people at Wolfram & Hart) they had to be running pretty low.

However, she didn't believe for a second that they were so lacking that they would leave their hideout completely unguarded. Which led her to believe that there was something incredibly unpleasant out there. Faith found it even harder to believe that, if Harmony and Jasmine were there hiding in plain sight, she could have walked around their hideout so often without drawing an attack or even a hello from her enemy.

Which had gotten her so wired up that when she felt a presence behind her she turned so fast that she almost tripped over her feet.

"You never were a very good dancer," said a disembodied voice.

Faith nearly jumped out of her socks before realizing in quick succession that it wasn't the Invisible Man but the Invisible Woman, and that it wasn't a stranger it was… "Christ Willow! This is not the time to pull this cloaking bullshit! You could give a person a heart attack!"

"I could say something about needing a heart but I'll let that go." Willow slowly came into focus as she spoke. "Would you have rather Harmony see me and send a small army in our direction?"

"I don't think they have the vamps for an army," said Faith, "but I see your point." She looked beyond Willow. "Is the rest of the backup invisible too?"

"No, they're just not here yet. I talked to Angel and Buffy, they should be here any minute."

"In that case we should probably knock." Faith picked up a small pebble and threw it ahead. Three seconds later, it hit the energy barrier. "There's the door."

Willow looked ahead. "Harmony and Ethan are sure getting their money's worth in magical force fields." Willow began a quick chant. The field appeared but did not drop. "It's a little stronger then I expected."

"So it'll take you a minute instead of thirty sec--" Faith had started to turn towards Willow when suddenly she saw something. "Oh great."

"Now what?" Willow looked up and was startled -- as she saw something that couldn't have been possible.

Five figures were approaching. Four of them were obviously vamps but they weren't the problem. It was the fifth figure that silenced Willow. It was tall. Easily six foot ten. One of its arms was that of a demon, the other was clearly metallic. There were patches of skin and metal running up and down its body. And the face looked like the Terminator after an extreme makeover.

"What the hell is that?" said Faith.

"It's not possible." said Willow. "He…it's dead."

"Who?"

Willow looked straight ahead. "It's Adam."

**8:59:57/8:59:58/8:59:59/9:00:00**


	22. 9PM to 10PM

Chapter 22

The Following Takes Place Between 9 pm and 10 pm on the day of the autumnal equinox

Faith had only heard second-hand information about the Initiative and Professor Walsh's project, therefore it took her several seconds to place Willow's remarks. "Wait a minute. Adam-Adam? The half-man, half demon, half army surplus creation?" she finally said. "I thought it was scrap metal."

"So did I," said Willow. "I guess it's true our military never learns from its mistakes."

"How did you beat him the first time?"

"A Sumerian binding spell combined with an enjoining spell and good old Slayer strength." Willow looked at the approaching figures. "Of course when we did it, I was still only a novice witch. There's a chance I might be able to kill him with one good shot right now."

"Well what are you waiting for, a written invitation?" said Faith anxiously.

Willow began chanting in a foreign tongue. Very slowly she began to glow. Faith ducked out of her way as a huge stream on magic power began flowing from her fingers.

It took less then ten seconds for the energy to reach the five figures. In that time two things happened. First, three of the four vampires managed to jump out of the way of the magic blast which was bad-- Faith didn't know how many vampires could react so quickly. The fourth was instantly incinerated. Second Adam-- or whatever it was-- raised one of his arms. The arm took the brunt of the magical assault, glowed white…and was gone.

Faith looked up at Willow. "Houston, we have a problem."

"What-- How-- Adam never had that kind of resistance to magic." Willow responded.

"I guess he got a major upgrade." The three remaining vamps and Adam 2.0 continued marching towards Willow and Faith. Faith looked at the witch. "I'm open to suggestions."

Willow thought for a second. "When we fought him the last time, Adam's power source was a coil of Uranium 235 encased in lead near his spine." She hesitated. "Spar with him for a while. See if you can find anything in his defenses you can exploit long enough for us to remove the power source."

"Guess we don't have a lot of other options." Faith got ready to move. "Anything else about the Iron Giant I should watch for?"

"His arms. " said Willow. "He's got some nasty surprises up his sleeves. Literally." She looked ahead. "Stay low. I'll give you cover."

"All right. "

"And Faith." Willow hesitated. "Don't die."

Faith gave a small smile. "Been there, done that." She got ready. "One, two, _go!_" Faith was moving on the last word. When she had gone ten feet, Willow was firing magic. This time, all three of the vamps fell back rather than risk being burned to a crisp.

In less than thirty seconds she was nearly in his face. "We haven't been formally introduced. My name is Faith. And you're about to meet the rest of me."

Faith began by hitting the robot-demon hybrid in the chest. It was like punching a vault. "Interesting." he said. "I had expected that a Slayers punches would be more devastating."

"You know I'm a Slayer." This wasn't good.

"Indeed." Suddenly he swung at her.

Faith was surprised. Given his size and build she didn't think that he could move that quickly.

"Your name and those of your friends are a vital part of my programming."

"You really have adapted from your last job, Adam." Faith tried to attack him but he was easily took her hits.

"You are in error. I am not Adam." The two of them circled each other. "I am an improved modification of the Adam-prototype. One could say I am an entire generation ahead of that design."

One of his arms shifted until a gun attachment appeared on it.

"You may call me Cain."

**9:06:27/9:06:28/9:06:29**

"You sure that this is the right place?" Angel asked. He and Buffy had arrived at the beach five minutes earlier but had yet to see any sign of Willow or Faith, let alone Harmony and Cordelia/Jasmine.

They heard machine gun fire. "I've got a gut feeling this is it," Buffy said. Before Angel had brought the car to a stop, she leapt out and ran towards the sound of gunfire. Angel considered trying to drive on to the beach but decided against it-- he probably wouldn't be able to get any traction on the soft sand. Instead he pulled over, got out and started running after Buffy.

Thirty seconds later he found her. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I'm just getting a little tired of having the This is Your Lifeguest stars showing up." Buffy sounded more irritated then concerned.

"Who is it now?" Angel asked.

"Remember when I told you about the evil robot our friends in the government were trying to build to make a better demon?"

That particular time wasn't one Angel liked to remember, but he did. "Yeah." he said wearily

Buffy gestured to the horizon. "Well I think Faith is fighting his evil twin."

Angel looked ahead and saw that the dark-haired Slayer did appear to be fighting a giant automaton. "They're doing all our greatest hits, aren't they?" he sighed. "All right. How do you want to handle this?"

Buffy pointed to the left where Willow was dodging attacks from three vampires. "They're playing divide and conquer. I suggest we do the same." Buffy looked at Angel. "You take the vamps, I'll handle Data."

"All right." They split up.

Despite her apparent cool, Buffy was more concerned about the new and improved Adam than she let on. It had been hard enough to kill him the first time. God knew what improvements had been made. Or had they just decided to dig up the old Adam? For that matter, who were _they_?

Buffy shrugged those questions aside and concentrated on the monster ahead. And the best way to attack this thing was to try hitting the place where she could do the most damage. So, a few feet before she reached Adam, she launched a jump kick into his back.

Problem was, a second before she landed, Adam whirled around and very nearly knocked her out of the sky. She managed to land without breaking anything but it was a near thing.

Adam turned around. "Another Slayer."

He moved a lot faster than the old one. Buffy barely had time to roll away before a giant steel blade sank into the ground where she had been lying. She tried to make the most of the opportunity by kicking him in the face and head, but he absorbed the blows without a problem. "Different people, yet your attacks are similar. Do you use the same strategies because of the power you both have?" He yanked his arm out of the ground. "Interesting."

"Great. Now I'm being lectured by the villains." She tried to look over the monster's head. "You all right, Faith?"

Before she could answer, Adam turned and began the firing a machine gun that seemed to be in his other arm. It was only because of their Slayer agility that both of them were able to avoid being shot. "Now that was a dumb question." Faith said as she reached Buffy.

"You know who this is?" Buffy asked.

Faith nodded. "An Initiative reject. Calls himself Cain."

Then they had to run to get out of the guns range. "Any tips how to beat them?" Faith asked when they could breathe.

"Got a magic gourd and some Tarot cards?" Buffy asked.

"Umm, no."

"Then, no, I haven't." Cain seemed about to charge. They both got ready to fight. "But there are two of us and only one of him, so…" Buffy shrugged. "How hard can it be?"

"I think we're about to find out."

Half a mile away, two men in suits were watching the battle on the television in the back seat of the limousine.

"This prototype is far superior to the previous model," said "Kilner." "We can definitely use him in our work."

"Right now it's keeping them occupied. That's all that matters." Thompson gestured to the back. "Anything else we get is a bonus." He nodded to the driver. "We have a schedule to keep to. Take us to the others."

The driver nodded and started the engine.

**9:13:58/9:13:59/9:14:00/9:14:01**

Willow hadn't expected that it would take so long to get rid of three measly vampires, even ones as agile as these appeared to be. But, for some reason, they were moving so fast that they were eluding her magical powers. Which was why she was glad to see Angel suddenly appearing. "I was wondering when the cavalry would show up," she called out as he knocked one of the vampires to the ground.

"Buffy's helping Faith with that giant Robo-demon." he said as he ran the rest of the way. "Do you think that we can handle these three?"

"Well, I'm having a little problem magicking them to death," said Willow, "so maybe we should kick their asses old school."

"Works for me." Angel produced a stake. "And Willow?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't use that phrase again. It doesn't work for you."

With that Angel waded into the fray. She decided to do likewise and, picking up a stray branch of a tree, she prepared to go _mano y mano_ with one of the vamps.

As she moved in to face it, Willow realized for the first time that it was a particularly ugly vampire. It wasn't nearly as hideous as those Uber-vamps that had nearly overrun Sunnydale but it was nasty enough.

"I guess you're glad you don't have a reflection," she quipped as she moved in. It didn't respond but that was nothing new. Most of the minions they had been fighting had been light on the small talk and heavy on the ass-kicking.

The vamp continued its rapid parrying and dodging. But though Willow was not a Slayer, she was still a very effective fighter. In less than a minute she managed to knock the vampire down and plunged her tree branch into the vampire's heart.

Where it stayed without the vampire turning to dust.

"Oh shit." Willow knew this was bad, but had no time to analyze why and how it was happening; if she did she'd be dead. "Okay," she said to herself, "Plan B." Rapidly she began to chant a spell that she had been working on for a couple of years but had never quite perfected. But she must have found the right phrasing because when she was done a ball of sunshine appeared and attacked the vampire.

It managed to turn the vamp into a pile of ash, but Willow thought that it took a lot longer than usual for a vampire to combust. It didn't help matters that the vamp gave a scream that could have been heard in Encino.

"This could be trouble," Willow said, and suddenly it occurred that it was in more ways than one. "Angel!" she yelled as she ran down to the two figures fighting in the darkness.

Angel knocked the vamp down and headed back towards her. "We've got a problem," Angel said. "I know what these vamps are."

"What?" asked Willow.

"They're elder members of the Order of Aurelius."

Willow placed the name. "The Order the Master came from?"

"The same. Some of the elders were more resistant to the usual methods of destruction." Angel nodded. "Staking them will just annoy them. It's gonna make this difficult."

"In more ways than one." said Willow. She gestured behind her. "Twenty feet away is a force field. Behind that field are Harmony, Jasmine and whatever nasty plan they've been cooking up all day. Any minute now they're going to create that temporal bend unless we can knock that field down."

Angel looked ahead of him-- where the two remaining elder vampires were standing. "And they're not going to make that easy either." He turned to Willow. "How long do you think it will take to bring the field down?"

"Five minutes, which I'm not going to get if those two and Optimus Prime keep making it difficult."

"So how do we handle this?"

Willow thought for a few seconds. "I've got an idea. But it's going to require some quick work and precision moving on all of our parts. Can you handle it?"

"I'll have too." Angel brushed his hands over his forehead. "What do you need me to do?"

**9:21:08/9:21:09/9:21:10**

"Wakey, wakey."

When he felt the hands tapping against his chest, Spike was very reluctant to rouse himself from consciousness. It wasn't just because he had been hit with a surge of electrical power strong enough to stun a small elephant. It was because he knew that when he did things were going to start moving and, when they were finished, he-- as well as a lot of people he liked-- were almost certainly going to be dead. He was surprised to find that even though he was certain of what was going to happen to him when he left this dimension, he was actually more concerned about the others.

Good lord, he thought, I really have turned into Captain Hairdo.

"Up and at 'em, Spike." The prodding and the voice were no longer gentle. He reluctantly raised his head to find that he was looking at Harmony. "I hope you're not tired," she said sweetly. "It would be ashamed if you were winked out of existence and didn't know it."

Spike couldn't let this go. "I guess I was wrong," he said bravely. "You get an army of minions to fight for you, you learn about a series of rituals that could bring about the end-times, but you're still the same old tart who can't get her banter right."

If this bothered Harmony, it only did for a second. "And I can't earn the respect of a man who I don't give a flying fuck about anymore." She smirked at him. "It's a shame. The old you would have loved the chaos that's about to unfold when you are removed from the timeline. It's a shame that neither of you will see it." She looked a little confused at what she had just said, and then shrugged it off. "However I do hope that you stay around long enough to watch this."

Harmony stepped aside. Spike looked ahead-- and was shocked to see Buffy, Faith and Angel fighting someone that shouldn't be there at all. "What the--" He looked Harmony as several things clicked at once. "All right, how long have you been working with those soldier boys?"

"Oh, you mean your old friends at the Initiative." Harmony smiled beatifically. "Didn't you know? They're part of Wolfram & Hart's government division. They've been most helpful, haven't they Thompson?"

Spike looked behind him to see that the sodding bastard was standing just a few feet away. "Yes. Though they're usually reluctant to aid our projects, they were more than willing to help when they learned that a former HST was involved. They were even willing to test one of their more advanced prototypes in a combat situation to provide assistance." Thompson's look turned even more serious. "Miss Kendall, you are aware of the repercussions should all of this fail to work."

"If this 'fails to work' I will certainly be dust long before I have to worry about the government. " Harmony began walking over to the other side of the beach. "Which is why I believe that we should make sure nothing goes wrong, _Cordelia_?"

As Spike turned his head around, he realized two things. First, that there were three heavily armed men guarding him, doubtless itching for him to do something stupid. The second was that Cordelia/Jasmine was standing about fifteen feet to his left and she was currently just a few feet away from Lindsey. Both of them were glowing strangely. Spike had a nasty idea of what was going on.

Cordelia/Jasmine stopped what she was doing and turned around. "I told you it will be a few more minutes before I've drained enough power."

"And I told you that our first goal was for you to draw enough power so that you could augment our force shield," Harmony snapped.

"Why are you bothering with this?" Cordelia/Jasmine snapped back. "You know as well as I do the not-really wicked Wicca will knock it down no matter how strong it is."

"The stronger it is, the more time it'll take. " Harmony spoke as if she were addressing a four-year old. "The more time it takes, we have a greater chance of pulling this off before Buffy and the cavalry charge the gates and hand us an ass-kicking," Harmony said, getting in her face. "Get it?"

For a second Spike was sure that Cordelia/Jasmine was going to charbroil Harmony. Instead, she walked past her, muttered a few words and began infusing the force shield with her own magic.

Harmony turned towards one of the ugliest looking demons that Spike had ever seen. Clem was handsome by comparison. "How long before we're in position?" she asked it.

"Less than a half-hour," the very ugly demon responded. "Can your boys hold them off that long?"

"They'd better," said Harmony. "Aside from the people I've got here, I've just about run out of subordinates." She took out her cell phone. "And this is the last ace up my sleeve." She spoke into the phone. "Send the second wave."

**9:29:38/9:29:39/9:29:40/9:29:41**

There had been no time for Angel to map out the plan that Willow had thought up. It was pretty much fight or die. He just managed to yell: "Faith! Switch!"

The dark haired Slayer reacted quickly and, in less than thirty seconds, Willow and Faith were working on the two remaining elder vamps while he helped Buffy fight the fully mechanized demon.

"All right," said Buffy as she danced around Adam II-- or whatever the hell it was called, "You pulled Faith away for a reason, care to share?"

"Willow needs us to keep the robot demon busy while she works on the forcefield." Angel said tersely.

"I see. Her plan wouldn't in any way have mentioned a way to kill this robot demon?"

Angel wasn't happy about that part of the plan either. "She says she's pretty sure that Adam or whatever--"

"Cain." Off Angel's reaction she added, "Guess the people in D.C. do have a sense of humor."

"-- has a device on his arms that enables him to absorb magical--" Angel was interrupted as Cain found a hole in his defense and hit him with a punch that staggered him.

"I find this entire conversation detrimental to my killing you," Cain said as he moved in closer.

Buffy whirled and landed a kick in the stomach. "Well, your killing him would be detrimental to my kicking your ass." That was brave talk considering that her hit barely staggered him.

"I should respond to that," Cain said, turning, "but I'm programmed to kill first and ask questions later." With that he pulled out his steel blade arm and swung it at her. Buffy managed to dodge it but it was a near thing.

Willow had told Angel that it could get bad quickly, but he hadn't realized that Buffy's luck--- which had helped her out dozens of times since Angel had known her--- might be at last about to run out. He was strong, no question, but compared to the power of the Slayer it was minor. They might be able to keep Cain busy but doing that might come at the expense of their lives.

_Think Angel. You've fought hulking, seemingly invulnerable things like this before. There's got to be something--_

And then it clicked. The basic idea occurred instantly and in less than a minute he had the outline of how to handle this wall of steel and flesh. Admittedly, it was all based on a shaky foundation but he didn't think that he could come up with better.

He was trying to get started when suddenly he sensed something moving in the corner of his eye. He whirled around to see an elder vamp coming at him. "Not now," he muttered to himself. He hit him three times, then grabbed and threw the elder across the beach. He quickly turned his attention back towards Faith, saw that she was still dealing with another elder vamp and did the math. _Wonderful_, he thought to himself.

He looked at Buffy who still had her hands filled with Cain, looked to the east to see the elder running back towards him, and to his west he saw-- still another vampire._ Doesn't she ever run out of dead bodies? _he thought to himself before he yelled. "Faith! I could use some help!"

**9:35:41/9:35:42/9:35:43**

Faith hadn't been wild about leaving Buffy to fight Cain, even if Angel was helping her. She had been only marginally reassured when Willow had told her that she thought that she knew how to make it work-- which still didn't fill Faith with confidence because she was the one who was going to have to fight with the Uber-vamps-light, or whatever the hell they were. It had taken her five minutes before she was able to dispatch one of them and it had not been easy. She was dealing with Number Two and it wasn't going much better.

When she heard Angel and saw that he was now fighting yet another ultra vamp, all she could think was _It never stops_. She looked at Willow who was still trying to crack the force field . "Will, I realize you're busy but if there's anything you could do to make this a little easier--"

"You got a knife?"

Faith hesitated a second, then pulled out the blade she'd had on her since she pumped the vamp for information twelve hours ago. She tossed it to Willow and then spent the next twenty seconds trading blows.

"Faith!" Willow tossed the knife back-- only now it was glowing.

Here goes nothing, she thought, and stabbed at the vampire's chest. The ultra vamp recoiled and Faith could smell burning flesh from where the knife had touched the skin. "This should be fun." she said to herself and went at it with a vengeance. The vamp tried to fight back but now that Faith didn't have to get in so close, he did less damage. In the space of seconds, the vamp was on its last legs.

Faith moved in, then paused, then made a series of slashes. When she had finished, there was a small 'F' on the vamps shirt. "Always wanted to do that." she said before stabbing the vamp right through the heart. As it turned to dust, she said: "Willow does good work," and then she ran to help Angel.

Angel was holding his own against ultra vamp number three (or maybe it was six, Faith had stopped counting) but it was pretty clear that he needed help.

"Angel! To me!" she shouted.

Angel got the message and began to slowly but surely back the vamp towards Faith. Unfortunately-- as had been the case all day-- this vamp was smarter than the norm and knocked Angel back before whirling and coming at Faith. He tried to knock the knife out of her hands but it burned his flesh as soon as he touched it. The vamp recoiled and ended up backing into Angel, who was holding something in his hand.

"Faith! Now!" he shouted.

And the ultra-vamps chest was pierced by Angels stake in his back and Faith's magic knife in the chest. He dissolved into nothing.

"How powerful is that knife?" Angel asked.

"I don't know," admitted Faith. "Willow gave it a magic boost but I don't know how strong it is."

"Hopefully it'll do what we need it to do." Angel looked ahead. It was pretty clear that Cain had Buffy on the ropes.

"See the bracelets on his arms?"

"Yes."

"Aim for them. I think this blade will go right through them.

"And after that?"

"Things will get easier."

'We can only hope."

Faith took a deep breath and ran.

Cain saw her coming and readied his gun arm but when he fired all that came were dry clicks.

"Out of ammo, big guy?" said Buffy aggressively. "What are you going to do now."

The demonoid responding by pressing another button that brought forth a flamethrower. "Improvise." said Cain before whirling around with a flaming arm.

Oooo, flamethrower

Which made things difficult as Faith couldn't get within ten feet of Cain. "Angel!" she yelled.He did his bit by drawing the monster's fire…so to speak. Moving at a speed she didn't think she had in her, Faith ran past the arm that wasn't carrying a blow torch. She drove the blade into the bracelet in a swift movement.

There was a spark and the bracelet came apart. _One down,_ she thought to herself.

But Cain wasn't just going to take this. He whirled around. Faith just managed to duck out of the way of the fire. She backed away and looked for Buffy. "B!" she yelled.

Buffy got the message and ran past him. As she did, she threw a rock at Cain. The stone grazed the arm and caused the flame to sputter for two seconds--long enough for Faith to drive the blade into the other bracelet.

"Now Willow!" Angel yelled.

The witch began to chant very rapidly. Cain reacted by charging at the witch. He never got closer than fifteen feet when a blast of magic paralyzed him.

"Faith!" Somehow Buffy had gotten right next to Cain. "Throw me the knife!" she yelled.

Faith didn't hesitate. The second Buffy grabbed it she drove it into the robots back. After she carved a hole, she pushed her fist into it and yanked. Out came what appeared to be a giant glowing metal heart. The instant it came out, Cain fell to the ground in a heap.

For a moment both Slayers breathed heavily. Finally Buffy spoke. "I guess this is what you call having your metal tested." she said throwing the power source to the ground.

**9:44:28/9:44:29/9:44:30/9:44:31**

Angel walked over to Buffy and Faith, both of whom were breathing hard. "You two okay?" he asked.

Several seconds passed before Faith had enough breath to answer. "If I were so inclined, I'd say this wasn't a day at the beach." she said. "But the pun thing is B's deal not mine."

Buffy looked at her. "I don't know. That was kind of me."

Angel gestured at the ruins of Cain. "You sure we've stopped this thing? " When both Slayers fixed him with a look, he continued: "I'm just saying, given our luck and the way the villains have been operating today…"

"Angel." said Buffy. "There are a lot of fatal blows and journeys to hell dimensions that a villain can return from, but when you rip a uranium power core from a robot-demon hybrid, he has definitely gone to meet his maker."

Faith pointed to the power core which stood less than ten feet away. "You're telling me that shit's radioactive?" she said.

"I don't think there's enough for it to be dangerous, and it's surrounded by a layer of lead. In any case we have more pressing problems." Buffy looked ahead. "Are all of the vampires dead?"

Angel did some quick math. "Well Faith, Willow and I dusted five and there don't seem to be any still around." He pointed ahead. "Of course, for all we know Harmony has a couple of dozen ready, willing and able behind the curtain."

"Not likely," said Faith. "Way I figure it, we've dusted or killed a hundred vamps today. Unless she's got access to another dimension, she's gotta be down to a skeleton crew." She thought for a moment. "Hell, she may be down to actual skeletons."

"Well, she doesn't have that or she wouldn't be doing this to begin with," said Buffy. "Still we've been underestimating her since this morning; she may have a few surprises left."

"In either case I think its time that we broke down the door." Angel started to turn towards the witch. "Willow, how much longer until…"

He stopped mid-sentence.

Faith and Buffy turned around and understood why he had .

Willow was now levitating a few feet about the ground. Her hands were raised and she was chanting rapidly.

Faith sighed. "Here we go again."

"Are you sure she's all right?" Angel asked.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that she's going to smash the field." said Buffy. "It's what happens next that we should be concerned about."

The force field became visible and began to crackle and spark. "Get ready." said Buffy.

"You sure?' asked Angel.

"When you see the field rockin' Willow's come a' knocking."

Before Angel or Buffy could react to this rather tasteless joke, the sparks began to glow green and grow larger. They all hit the dirt before there was a huge bang and a huge flash of white light filled the sky.

It took several seconds of blinking for their vision to return. When it did the three of them were somewhat astonished by what they saw.

Where before there had been nothing in front of them but the skyline, the sand and the ocean, a group of people and demons were now visible. Off to one side was Lindsey held in place by three rather large men with very impressive blasters in their hands. To the right stood a furious Harmony and a man in a suit with a few vampires around them. And at the center of it stood the three beings responsible for most of the days events. Cordelia/Jasmine, Spike and Sahjhan.

Cordelia/Jasmine was standing with her arms outstretched, blue bolts of energy stretching from her fingers. Sahjhan was a few feet behind her chanting furiously. Between them stood Spike, levitating in the air.

All of this Angel saw in the space of a second. Then Harmony was shouting. "STOP THEM!" and the three armed men and vamps began running at them.

"Do what you have to but we have to get to Spike _now."_

Buffy began to run, Faith and Angel just a few feet behind her.

The three men with the guns reached them first. And even though she was five feet away, Faith recognized them as models of the taser rifle that Fred had used hours ago defending Wolfram & Hart. _One guess who hired them_, she said before she ducked to avoid the first blast. "Look out!" she screamed as she fell.

Angel reacted quicker and managed to dodge another shot. Buffy wasn't as lucky. She stumbled while running and she got hit in the leg. She fell to the ground.

"Buffy!" shouted Angel.

"GO!" she shouted.

Realizing she was right, Faith didn't slow down. Angel, however, despite knowing the consequences couldn't leave Buffy to die. He struck the first gunmen in the face and knocked his blaster out of his arms. Angel hit him twice more before going to Buffy.

"No!" Buffy shouted.

Angel turned to see the second gunmen standing two feet away. He had just enough time to think _I've killed us both_ before there was a blast--

-- and the gunmen fell to the ground.

To reveal Lindsey standing three feet away.

Angel ran towards him and grabbed him by his collar. "What, no thank you?" Lindsey managed to spit out.

"The world's ending and you're just jerking off?" Angel snarled.

"In case you forgot, they were holding me prisoner. " Lindsey said just as pissed. "That crazy girlfriend of yours was squeezing magic out of me like I was a goddamn sponge. Right now I couldn't use a spell if I wanted to." Angel suddenly saw that Lindsey was holding the blaster that he had knocked out of his hands. "You want to tear me a new one, do it after you stop the world from ending."

"And how do we do that?" Buffy was now limping over to them.

"Well, there might…" Lindsey trailed off. "Then again, we might not have a problem after all."

"Why?"

Lindsey pointed towards the three figures twenty feet away. Only now it seemed a fourth figure had come up to join them.

Willow.

**9:55:32/9:55:33/9:55:34**

It had taken Willow a couple of minutes to recharge after blowing the force field away. She knew that she was going to need all her strength to do what was ahead of her. She didn't want to do it but she realized she had no alternative.

"Look at you." she said as she levitated towards Cordelia/Jasmine. "I guess you finally got that whole lower being thing down cold."

Cordelia/Jasmine didn't look up from what she was doing. "I don't have time to play with you." she said.

Willow threw a blast of energy at her. The blast knocked Cordelia/Jasmine back.

The former god turned around. "Now you've done it," she said.

"We've got other stuff to do," Sahjhan warned.

"I've done the hard part. You can handle it from here." Cordelia/Jasmine walked towards Willow. "I'm going to take care of Miss Thinks-She's-a-Goddess."

Willow threw a bolt of power at Cordelia/Jasmine. It didn't cause her any evident pain.

The ex-god returned the salvo with a blast of her own. "You think you can hurt me with borrowed magic?" Willow said incredulously.

"No, this magic is mine. Lindsey gave me a jump start but that helped me tap into my old source." Cordelia/Jasmine gave a cruel smile. "Now I'm ready to rumble."

She began to rise above the ground. Willow rose with her.

"So you're really going to kill one of your old friends." Cordelia/Jasmine said coolly as she began to focus her energy.

Willow swallowed. "Cordelia was never really my friend." she said. "This will be difficult. But a tiny part of me is going to enjoy giving you the ass-kicking you so richly deserve."

Willow began focusing her energy too.

"Bring it on, bitch." spat Cordelia/Jasmine.

Almost simultaneously a bolt of energy came out of both of their fingers. The two bolts began to gather in the space between them.

A small black circle appeared where they met.

Willow's hair began to darken.

Cordelia/Jasmine began to glow.

And the circle grew larger.

Faith knew what was happening and knew who she had to stop. Only problem was she couldn't do it. She had tried several times to hit Sahjhan but it was like swinging at a mirage. He didn't even look up from what he was doing. And something was happening. The area around Spike was beginning to shimmer. Faith was pretty sure he'd be gone soon enough. But right now all she could do was try and fend off the vamps that were trying to stop her.

Not that stopping them would do much good. If Spike disappeared then these vamps-- indeed the whole day-- would seem like a walk in the park. If only there was--

"Faith!" It was Angel. "On your left!"

She looked to her left and saw something. It took her a few seconds to realize what it must be and what it could do. There was no room for being wrong, she just had to do it and pray.

She ran to the right knocking down the vampires until she reached the large brown cylinder. She grabbed it and whirled around.

_Am I close enough? Guess I'll have to be._

She pulled the lid off, and had a half second to think she had screwed up before she heard Sahjhan shout: "No! Not again!" A small brown trail of smoke that came out at the urn filling it.

When it was done she closed the Recitian urn, and looked ahead to see that Spike had landed on the ground, shaken but still there.

"I guess the game is over," she said. Then she felt a tap on her shoulder and saw Angel.

"Maybe not yet." he said and pointed up.

Where Cordelia/Jasmine and Willow floated locked in their magical conflict.

And the black circle was getting larger.

**9:59:57/9:59:58/9:59:59/10:00:00**


	23. 10 PM to 11 PM

Chapter 23

The following takes place between 10 PM and 11PM on the day of the Autumnal Equinox.

"It never fucking ends!" Faith complained as she put the urn on the ground. "We jump through every hoop they go through, figure out all the puzzles they throw at us, beat every damn boss and mini-boss-- all this and now you're telling me that we're still not finished?"

"I didn't say we hadn't succeeded," said Angel. "Whatever time manipulation trick they were trying required Sahjhan and Jasmine, and they're both out of the game. I think we've stopped this apocalypse plan down cold."

"Then why are you so worried?" Faith asked. "Don't tell me its because of what's happening up there."

She gestured upwards where Willow and Cordelia/Jasmine were still locked in their magical conflict.

"Faith's right." Spike had managed to pick himself up and had walked over to them. "I mean I know that this Jasmine bird has some pretty decent moves, but in any magical duel I put my money on Willow every time." He looked up. "Quite frankly I think it's awful misleading of Red to not properly clean her clock straight out."

"It's not who wins," Angel replied, "that concerns me as much as much as that thing that the two of them are generating."

Faith could see why the mini black hole (it was the only term she could think of it that described whatever the hell it was) worried Angel. When they had started, the vortex had been only a foot in diameter. Now it was at least seven feet across and was taking up most of the distance between them. Willow and Cordelia/Jasmine both appeared to be moving away from it as a result.

"This may be a stupid question, but do you have any idea what that thing is?" she asked.

"I don't know," Angel admitted. "If I had to guess, some kind of end product of black magic. Its essence, maybe. Whatever it is I don't think we want it to get away from them. I'm definitely not wild to see what could happen if it got loose."

"And they say it's the talking villain that always spoils the plot," said a voice from behind them.

Angel whirled around just in time to be hit by a huge electrical shock. He collapsed to the ground.

"Harmony!" shouted Faith and Spike simultaneously as the blond vampire appeared holding one of the blasters.

"You kill all my vampires and demons, you ruin my apocalypse and now, when the battle's over, you forget all about me!" It was hard to tell which offense bothered Harmony more.

Faith got ready to fight. "We've been taking you seriously all day, bitch, and now I think that it's time we gave you a really good thanking for everything you've put us through."

"I wouldn't if I were you." Harmony aimed the blaster upward. "All this talk about what happens when that black circle get loose has made me really curious to see what'll happen when it hits the ground."

"Don't be a bigger idiot than you are!" said Spike.

"I think we both know that's not possible." responded Harmony. She considered her last remark for a second but did not change the gun's trajectory. "Anyway this is a two-fer. I get to unleash a path of destruction and kill that red-haired witch bitch in one shot." She put her hand on the trigger. "That's what you call win-win."

"No!" Spike ran right at her. Harmony whirled and landed a perfect kick in the stomach. When Spike was doubled over she hit him in the back of the head. Faith looked around for Buffy but she was still finding her feet after being hit by a taser blast. It was looking like she wasn't going to find it in time.

"While I was recruiting my army I perfected my fighting techniques too," she said sweetly. "I'll kill you momentarily but first-- "

She raised the rifle.

Faith knew she was only going to get one chance and she took it. She ran straight at Harmony and hit her with a flying kick a split second before she fired-- deflecting the shot but not stopping it.

Cordelia/Jasmine fell. For a moment Faith thought she was dead but that disintegrated when Cordelia/Jasmine stopped falling two feet from the ground.

"You stupid cow!" she yelled. "Do you realize what you've done? I've lost it! Lost it!"

Harmony and Faith both looked up to see that she was correct. The vortex had gotten loose.

And was slowly heading straight for them.

"Oops," said Harmony.

**10:07:22/10:07:23/10:07:24**

Willow had been as shocked-- figuratively speaking, of course-- by what had just happened. She was just as worried as Angel about the awesome magical force that had been gathering between herself and Cordelia/Jasmine-- more so because she had a greater idea of what the consequences would be. However, she had also known that if the two of them had kept increasing the magical power that they were both using, the vortex might become big enough for both of them to fall into-- and goddess only knew what would happen next. So she was relieved when, suddenly, Cordelia/Jasmine fell from the sky.

That relief lasted exactly four seconds. Then she realized that there was some kind of temporal flux below them and that something even worse would _definitely_ happen if it collided with the vortex.

So Willow lowered herself down and began using her powers to halt the progress of the magic vortex. It was working for now, but something very bad was beginning to happen to her.

Willow looked at the ground for her friends. "Angel! Buffy!" she yelled. "I'm not going to be able to hold this back for long!"

Buffy had managed to recover enough from her shock to run over to check on Angel and Spike, both of whom seemed dazed by the fighting. "Why can't you control it?" she yelled up.

"Because only half of it is my magic!" Willow responded. "Jasmine has a different kind of power then I do! Eventually that power is going to set itself free!"

"Can you disperse the power somehow?" Spike had managed to get to his feet.

Willow shook her head. "It's taking everything I have just to stop it from falling!"

"You really shouldn't have said that."

Willow suddenly realized that Cordelia/Jasmine hadn't been killed and that she was still in the game. "Jasmine, don't be an idiot!" she yelled.

"Why not?" Cordelia/Jasmine said as she rose back up to her previous location. "You've ruined our temporal rift, so I think it's time that we bring a good old-fashioned apocalypse to this planet."

Willow knew that Cordelia/Jasmine was more than capable of doing just that, but she also knew that any attempt to stop the ex-god would result in the vortex plummeting to the earth. "Somebody stop her!" she yelled, knowing that there was almost nothing that her friends could do from below.

"The world just before the end," said Cordelia/Jasmine. "Isn't this a Kodak moment?"

That was weird, Willow thought, as it sounded more like Cordelia than Jasmine but she had no time to even note that.

"Say cheese, motherfucker!" the former cheerleader said before she began to charge.

On the ground people the few remaining people on the side of evil still alive were taking this opportunity to get the hell out of Dodge. Buffy and Faith knew that Harmony and the others from Wolfram & Hart were getting away but realized that they had to deal with what was going to happen. They were concentrating so hard on the sky above that they didn't notice Lindsey come up behind them until he was almost on top of them.

"Fire a low level blast dead center at the vortex," he said as he handed Faith one of the taser rifles.

"How do you-- " Faith started.

"Do it!"

Lindsey's voice brooked no argument. No time to worry about the consequences if they missed or if this didn't work. No time to do anything except shoot.

Hoping that the rifles had the same basic layout as the ones Fred had developed, Faith adjusted the sight and brought the rifle up.

"Three… Two… One…Now!" At Lindsey's shout the two of them fired together.

A bright white flash filled the sky.

**10:13:32/10:13:33/10:13:34/10:13:35**

Angel didn't know whether it was the force of the blast or the residual pain of being hit with one of the taser rifles that had caused him to lose consciousness. All he knew was that when he opened his eyes he saw the person he least wanted to.

"You've come back to us." said Spike.

Angel slowly managed to rise to a sitting position. "So I'm not dead."

"Well, we're clearly not in hell because it's 'been there, done that' in both our cases and I know for damn sure that I haven't done nearly enough today to get into heaven, so yeah we're still alive and kicking." Spike looked around. "In a manner of speaking, of course."

Angel found the strength to look up at the now empty night sky. "Well, if we're still here where's the vortex?"

"Not rightly sure," Spike admitted. "But my guess is that whatever they did worked." He gestured a few feet away where Lindsey and Buffy were slowly rising to their feet as well.

Buffy looked around. "Willow?" she called. "Willow?" She ran down to the waters edge. Angel was closer than Buffy but it still took a few seconds to see what she had-- a very disheveled and wet Willow lying in the surf. "Willow, you all right?"

For a very long five seconds there was no answer. Then a loud moan could be heard. "Did anybody get the license of that truck?" the master witch managed to say before Buffy embraced her. Willow took this for a few seconds before she said: "A little air? I did just fall from the sky." Buffy quickly released her.

Angel had managed to walk over to Lindsey. "All right, how the hell did you know what to do?" he said.

Now Lindsey was pissed. "Jesus, how many times do I have to save your asses before you get it that I'm on your side?"

"Easy, mate." Spike had managed to walk over. "Sorry about that, but Angel never was very good at giving a proper 'thank-you.' It's part of the whole brooding, can't-see- anyone-reforming-but-him, self-righteous thing he's got going on. I, on the other hand, know how to say thanks when my hide has been saved."

Spike offered Lindsey his hand. Lindsey, a little shocked, shook it. "Thank you."

"So, just what did you do? That vortex thingy's not gone pop up when we least expect, is it?" Spike's tone was now positively convivial considering he had been willing to kill Lindsey a few hours earlier.

"No, the energy blasts fired from the rifles caused the vortex to implode." said Lindsey. "Whatever magical energy that thing had has been dispersed."

"Did you know that it would work or were you taking a long shot?" asked Faith who had now managed to find her own feet and join them.

"I was pretty sure it would work. Magical energy is like all other kinds of energy-- if you know where to focus you can disperse it." Lindsey looked at the rifle in his hands. "Plus I was still at Wolfram & Hart when these rifles were still in the blueprint stage. They were designed to deal with magical attacks."

"Guess they did." Angel looked around. "Well Harmony and whoever else Wolfram & Hart had on this damn apocalypse kick seem to have stolen away into the night."

"Well that's tomorrow's problem." Buffy walked over with Willow beside her. "We can worry about that later. We've stopped Harmony and the others from doing the time warp again and we've averted this apocalypse. I'd say we're done for today."

"Well now," said a familiar voice, "I wouldn't say that." Buffy and Angel turned around to see Cordelia/Jasmine standing on the beach twenty feet away from them.

Buffy sighed. "I suppose that it would have been asking too much to have you killed by the blast."

"You would've liked that. Two of your mortal enemies killed in one shot."

Angel thought that her phrasing had been very strange, but before he could even note it Faith spoke up. "Please. Jasmine was never powerful enough to be a threat and Cordelia was never more than a nuisance."

That seemed to rock Cordelia/Jasmine for a second but she smiled and said, "Now you've pissed me off. I was going to kill you right now, but now I'm going to make you suffer instead." She snapped her fingers and disappeared.

"And that was villain cliché number seventeen." said Spike. "Crap, when I was a big bad I didn't bother with this fate worse than death bullshit. Just killed them and be done with it. Makes you seem pathetic."

"Well, she might have the moves…" Willow trailed off. "Oh dear."

"What now?" said Buffy tiredly.

"That urn or whatever it was that held Sahjhan? It's gone."

**10:21:45/10:21:46/10:21:47**

Activity at the Wolfram & Hart building had finally begun to slow down. Fred and Andrew were still handling some busy work, but everyone knew that the major fight between good and evil was going down in Venice Beach. They had sent some reinforcements but they knew that if they managed to take care of Buffy, Faith, Angel and Willow, the chances of the remainder of Angel-Slayer stopping the apocalypse would become almost non-existent. The tension in the building was so thick that you could cut it with a knife.

When Fred's cell rang, she had already gotten so worked up that he nearly jumped. She fumbled with her cell phone before answering. "Angel-Slayer."

"Fred, we think its over," Angel said without preamble.

"You're serious?" said Fred. "You're not just saying that, cause if this is some kind of false positive I'm not going to get the others cheering and yelling if the world goes poof--"

"Fred." Angel said gently.

"I know. Babbling. Sorry." She took a deep breath. "You're sure they can't do this temporal bend thing?"

"We're not a hundred percent positive but Willow is pretty sure they've missed their window."

Fred took a deep breath.

Angel continued: "Now it's time for me to say 'But…'"

"Please no buts. I'd also like a tabling of howevers and maybes." Fred rubbed her eyes with her free hand. "I'd like a taboo on prepositional phrases in general."

"However," Angel continued doggedly, "we still have a couple of problems."

"Such as?"

"Harmony seems to have gotten away. "

Fred sat down in front of one of the computers. "Maybe from you but not from us."

"What do you mean?"

"Willow got to Venice Beach in a helicopter. Once it dropped her off, we had it fly in a holding pattern over the area looking for any evil stragglers." She pushed some buttons. "Five minutes ago we spotted Harmony and some men in suits tearing south, towards LAX."

"Really? " Angel sounded pleasantly surprised for a change. "Well that does solve one problem. Thank you for your initiative."

"You're welcome." Fred smiled. "Maybe your other problems will be just as easy to solve."

Angel's voice returned to business as usual. "I don't think so. Harmony wasn't the only one to get away. Jasmine did too."

"Which way did she go?" Fred asked.

"We were hoping you could tell us."

Fred was about to respond when Lorne walked up with a rather dark expression on his face. "Hold on a second." She put the phone down. "What's wrong?"

"I was checking the security cameras when I found her."

Fred sighed. "Please tell me Celine Dion's here for her three o'clock."

"No such luck."

"Where's Jasmine?" Fred said as they walked to the monitors.

"On the roof." He gestured. "And I think she brought a toy surprise with her."

Cordelia/Jasmine opened the urn and in a blast of air and smoke, Sahjhan appeared. "Well that wasn't as long as last time," he said. He looked around. "Where are we?"

"The headquarters for the forces of good," Cordelia/Jasmine with disdain.

"And we're here because…"

"Angel and the others fucked up our chance for the apocalypse." Cordelia/Jasmine pointed to the skylight they were standing near. "I figured we could have a massacre in its place."

"Hello? Still non-corporeal?" Sahjhan said.

She chanted rapidly in a long forgotten language. A small wave passed through Sahjhan. He looked around and slammed his hand into the wall. It was concrete six inches thick but it broke apart like paper-mache.

He looked at Cordelia/Jasmine. "You're serious about this?"

In answer she threw the urn against the wall. It broke into a million pieces. "Go medieval on their asses," she said sweetly.

Fred, Lorne, Andrew and Dawn watched this from the security cameras.

"Every time I think this day can't get worse, " said Dawn exasperatedly.

Fred was already moving. "Dawn, call in all the Slayers we have here and tell them to get ready to fight! Andrew, call the helicopter and have them pick up Buffy and Faith."

"Where are you going?" Andrew asked as Fred headed for the elevator.

"To get in touch with Gunn," Fred said as she walked through the elevator door. "If things get bad he may be watching the only person who can stop Sahjhan for good."

**10:29:22/10:29:23/10:29:24/10:29:25**

Harmony knew that she was dead. Never mind that she had managed to raise an army, resurrected a deity and had delivered a rather sizable blow to Angel-Slayer. The bottom line was that she had failed and the people she worked with needed a scapegoat. Since Ethan was dead and Jasmine had disappeared, she was going to be the one to be served up to those higher up the food chain. If she was lucky all they would do was dust her. Harmony didn't think she was particularly lucky.

She also knew that there was no real chance of amnesty from the good guys. Too much death and pain had been inflicted. Besides, with all of their resources and contacts, they probably wouldn't need her help in tracking down the rogue elements that had helped her pull off most of today's events.

Her only hope was to get out of the country. Wolfram & Hart had business interests almost everywhere, of course, but she knew there were some places where they were spread far thinner. Plus there was a chance that they would be so busy regrouping that she could slip through their lines and escape. It was a very slim hope but it was all she could cling too.

So she was running. She couldn't take any of the cars she'd ridden in today. Doubtlessly Wolfram & Hart had them under surveillance. She'd have to kill someone with a car and then haul ass to the border. Mexico would do for a start, although she probably wouldn't begin to feel safe until she was somewhere in the Amazon rainforest.

_One good thing about being a vampire_, she thought as she approached a parking lot, _you can run really fast when you don't need to breathe. I must have put five or six miles between me and them in twenty minutes._

She looked around. Fifty feet away from her was a sign telling her that Los Angeles County Airport was less than half a mile away. It would be easy enough to get there and hop the redeye to Anywhere Else, but she knew that both the good guys and the bad guys would be watching the airport. The parking lots, however…

She ran another five hundred feet before she reached the eastern most edge of one of them. She had never stolen a car before but, considering everything else that she'd done today, she didn't think it'd be too big an obstacle to overcome.

She checked the vehicles on the far side of the lot. She knew that it would probably be to take one of the cars closer to the airport, but she was smart enough to realize that the airport security cameras were far more likely to be focused there. She'd have to choose from these pickings, however slim they were.

There was a blue Toyota, a green Honda, a bright red Buick, a big white van, a black--

Harmony returned her attention to the van and realized that it was an ambulance. The reason she hadn't recognized it immediately was that the lights on top weren't flashing and it was dark enough for her not to instantly see the writing.

What was an inactive ambulance doing at the far end of an airport? She didn't know but something about it smelled funny. She had better--

Harmony's reflexes were good but the woman who jumped her was faster. She knew seconds after they began that she was dealing with a Slayer. Well, she thought, at least I can go out fighting.

They fought for a minute seconds before the Slayer knocked her to the ground. _Here it comes, _she thought to herself.

But the stake never came. Instead the Slayer stopped and said: "Harmony?"

Harmony got her first good look at the Slayer. "Patrice?"

**10:36:09/10:36:10/10:36:11**

Sahjhan had been tearing through the building for the last ten minutes and Andrew could only see two positives. The first was that the building still needed to be repaired from the attack early that morning, so the contractors would only have to come back once. The second was that Sahjhan had begun his path of destruction at the roof rather than the basement. Had he started at the foundation he probably could have brought the entire building down in a far shorter time than it was taking him to work his way down from the roof .

But these were two very small things in what was rapidly becoming a very horrific situation. Sahjhan had already torn through the top two floors of the buildings like the bulldozer that he was built like.

Dawn and Andrew had frantically ordered an evacuation of top floors and most of the people had gotten out. The frightening thing had come when the last people on the floor had managed to make it downstairs. One of them had told Andrew that he had been cornered by the huge demon but Sahjhan had let him go. He had left the man with six words: "You get to live-- for now."

Andrew had no doubt that the ugly demon meant it. He was also aware that he, and much of the Angel-Slayer staff, were just six floors below him. So he and Dawn had done what Fred had instructed them to.

"How many Slayers did you send up there?" Andrew asked as he and Dawn looked at the security screens.

"Seven, including Kennedy." Dawn replied. "How far out are the others?"

"Willow's recharging and Spike's gone after Harmony. The chopper picked up the others." Andrew looked at his watch. "ETA's ten minutes."

Dawn didn't seem happy about that. "We may need magic in order to stop this monster."

"Willow says it can't be helped. Whatever she did back there drained a buttload of power from her. Besides, as she reminded us, if we really need her she can teleport here in thirty seconds."

Dawn looked at the monitor showing the floor where Sahjhan was fighting the Slayers. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

But as Andrew watched the monitor he became more and more afraid that it might. The Slayers had arrived on that level of the building less than five minutes earlier and already two of them were lying motionless on the floor. "Other than Kennedy how experienced are these Slayers?" he asked, concerned.

Dawn did some quick thinking. "Four of them joined us after we arrived in LA. But Diana and Cho-san fought at Sunnydale High."

The two of them watched the monitor as Cho-san and a red-haired Slayer that Andrew couldn't place battled Sahjhan.

Despite having been up nearly twenty-four hours straight, both were clearly fighting with all their energy. Unfortunately it was also clear that they were just barely able to keep themselves from being crushed. Sahjhan was shaking off their heavy blows as if they were nothing more than mosquito bites. After a series of punches Sahjhan turned around and dealt Cho-san a blow that knocked her against one of the pillars. She slid to the ground, unconscious. The red-haired Slayer took the opportunity to try a roundhouse kick. Sahjhan grabbed her and threw her through one of the windows.

Andrew slammed his fist against the wall. "Damn it, there's gotta be something that we can do to help them!"

"What, drown them in nervous sweat?" Dawn shot back. "All we would be doing is making sure that more people died."

"The weapons in the lab, there must be something with enough firepower to kill that…that thing!"

Dawn thought it over for a few seconds. "I don't think it would work," she finally said, "but at this point we don't lose anything by trying." She looked around. "Leonard!"

The young seer had been waiting quietly to one side. He approached them. "Yeah?"

"Go to Fred's lab. Get something that might make a dent in that demon's armor."

"Anything in particular?" Leonard asked.

Dawn looked at the screen where Sahjhan was pounding on another Slayer. "Normally I'd call for a sling with five small stones but I think a rocket launcher might be more effective. See what you can find."

Leonard left. Andrew was about to follow when his walkie-talkie crackled of with static. He pounced on it. "Buffy, is that you?"

"Roger," said the voice on the other end. "According to the pilot we're about to come in for a landing. Is there still something to rush too?"

"Oh yeah," he confirmed. "And not to put any pressure on you, but hurry."

He got off the walkie-talkie and started after Leonard, hoping and praying that the combination of Slayer and mechanical strength would be enough to bring this demon down.

**10:44:29/10:44:30/10:44:31/10:44:32**

Patrice had been just as surprised to see Harmony as Harmony had been to see Patrice. Though neither would admit it, both had been sure that the other was dead. Both had realized that they were up shit creek and that the only thing that they could do was run.

Fortunately Patrice did know how to hot wire a car and three minutes after they had been ready to kill each other, they were tearing ass south. After they went through the second intersection without stopping or slowing down, however, Harmony was beginning to reconsider the wisdom of their venture.

"Patrice," she began carefully, "I realize our situation, but any chance we have of getting out of here disappears if we crash."

Patrice didn't shift her focus from the road but her tone hardened. "If everything goes right for us, what do you think the chances are of us making it out of the country?"

"Slim to none," Harmony admitted. "But they become zero if we get totaled while getting to the interstate." She thought it over. "Of course I might be able to make it through a head-on collision. You, on the other hand…" She trailed off.

Patrice didn't respond verbally but at the next light she slowed for a few seconds before driving through. "You know, if we drive according to the rules of the road, there's a very good chance they could use the traffic cameras to catch us," Patrice said calmly. "They've been doing it all day."

Harmony took this in. "The way I see it either one of two things are going on right now. Either, one, Jasmine and Sahjhan are dead and all of Angel-Slayer's resources are tracking us down in order to find us and kill us. Or, two, Jasmine and Sahjhan have managed to kill Buffy and the others and now are moving in on the rest of the A-Team-- after which, they will track us down and kill us for running away."

"Is that meant to be encouraging?" said Patrice.

"Well, if it's my second guess, it'll be hours before Jasmine and the others can focus their time and energy on hunting us down in the best Sam Gerard fashion. If that's the case, we might actually make it out of the country before the hunt gets started." Harmony looked at the dark streets passing them by. "Hence my immediate concern that we not die in a head-on crash with an orange truck."

Patrice again slowed as they came to the next light. "What about the blood-sucking lawyers?" she asked.

"Oh, they're going to be pissed beyond measure," admitted Harmony. "But no matter what happens they're going to have a whole shitload of trouble from the ultimate winner of this fight. My guess is that they're gonna be so busy redrawing and rearranging their plans that it's going to be at least a couple of days before they can begin the process of tracking us down to downsize us into oblivion."

"You guess or you hope?" asked Patrice.

"Does it really matter at this point?" asked Harmony. "Today's plan to destroy this world is as dead as line dancing. Everything that I've spent the last six months working on is ashes in the wind. By association so are we."

'Then why didn't you just let Buffy or the others kill you?"

Harmony was silent. "Because I still want to live." She looked at the Slayer. "So do you. Everything we worked for may be fucked up beyond recognition, but I'm still not ready to become dust in the wind. There's nothing noble in that." She gave a harsh laugh. "That's the thing about life. Even after you're dead you still want to hold on to it."

Patrice didn't answer for a while. "Make sure we're not being followed." she finally said.

"And if we are?" asked Harmony.

"You know what happens then." Patrice said in as gentle a tone as she could manage.

Harmony checked the back.

And saw a black car traveling about ten feet away. It could have been anyone traveling in the night. But instinctually she knew that it was not.

"So we're almost there," she said to herself as she turned. She looked at Patrice. "Get ready."

**10:51:22/10:51:23/10:51:24**

Until the helicopter landed Buffy had been hoping that Angel and the others had exaggerated about how Sahjhan. She'd had already a fair number of grueling battles today and she didn't need another Mayor-Glory-Caleb fight on her hands. That hope disappeared as soon as they got out of the helicopter and saw the destruction that had been laid on the roof of the building. It looked like a charge of dynamite had been lit after an earthquake. It wasn't as bad in the building itself, but it was pretty terrible.

"At least we're not going to have much trouble finding this guy," Buffy said, trying for humor and failing miserably.

"He did all this in _twenty minutes?_" Faith asked as they picked their way down the stairs.

"The first time he became corporeal a truck hit him doing fifty and nearly split in half." Angel didn't mention that he had been responsible for that little incident.

"Any advice on how we beat this thing?" Buffy asked.

"Don't fight fair," said Lindsey. "You won't win in a fair fight against him. Of course, you probably won't win in an unfair fight either."

"Why exactly did you come here?" Angel demanded. "Don't tell me it was for moral support."

Lindsey's response was lost as they entered the business section of the thirty-seventh floor. Almost every wall had been smashed, three of the windows were shattered, the furniture were so much kindling and three women were lying on the ground-- if not dead, they were so broken and battered that Buffy wondered if even Slayer-healing would repair the damage.

Two women were still standing, barely -- Kennedy and Diana.

"Shit!" said Faith running over to them. "You girls all right?"

Beat up as she was, Kennedy managed a crooked smile. "No, we're sunshine and roses." The smile faded. "I guess were better off than the others."

"Please tell me that you did some damage to Sahjhan," said Angel.

Kennedy shook her head. "We may have given him some cuts and bruises but he's still in the game. I don't think anything short of an A-bomb is going to take him down."

"Oh, my ears are burning!" Everyone whirled around to see Sahjhan, big as life and twice as ugly, appear on the floor. "Actually that's not you. This dimension tends to give me infections."

Angel turned to Lindsey. "Get them out of here." he said and ran towards the huge demon. He hit him twice before the demon knocked him aside.

"I still got unfinished business with you, asshole." Sahjhan waded towards him. However, he stopped halfway there as a knife flew through the air, cutting off the top of an earlobe.

Sahjhan turned around slowly. "Oh lord. Three of you killed, four of you on the severely disabled list and you Slayers still think that you can take me?"

Buffy shrugged. "What can I say? Evil tells me to run and hide, I get the urge to stand and fight. Rebellious streak I guess."

Sahjhan considered this …then charged both of them. These Slayers, however, were faster and better trained. Both of them managed to dodge him. Faith ran around him and grabbed the knife-- still imbued with Willow's magic-- out of the wall.

Buffy, in the meantime, was dodging the powerful blows that he threw.

"Keeping me on the defensive isn't going to beat me."

"No, but this might!" Suddenly the air was filled with the sound of electricity. A small red laser appeared on the right side of the demons large chest and suddenly the smell of roasting flesh filled the room.

Buffy knew that she had to act on this opening and did so, running at Sahjhan and kicking him just below the burned flesh. The demon shouted in pain. Grabbing Buffy by the leg, he yanked her into the air. "You're gonna pay for that, bitch."

"How about we take it out in trade?" Suddenly Faith reappeared and stabbed him in the stomach with the magic knife. Sahjhan didn't yell but he did drop Buffy.

As she got to her feet Buffy was stunned by who was holding the laser impaling the demon. "Andrew!" she shouted.

Andrew didn't even blink. "He was getting on my nerves. "

"Well, so are you!" Suddenly Sahjhan ripped one of the computers out of the wall and tossed it at Andrew. The young nerd tried to duck but it hit him in the chest. He fell to the ground.

Faith ran at Sahjhan and stabbed at him. This time, the blade missed and he grabbed Faith's arm. The dark-haired Slayer screamed.

Buffy and Angel both ran to her. Sahjhan turned and threw Faith at them. Buffy managed to duck but Angel was propelled backwards by the dark-haired Slayer.

"Don't you morons get it? _I am invincible!_" Sahjhan shouted at them. "That's the whole reason I was made non-corporeal in the first place. Nothing can stop me!"

"You're wrong about that." Everybody, even Sahjhan, whirled around at the sound of that voice. "One person can." Angel knew what was coming but still shook in fear.

"And that person is me." said Connor.

Everybody's attention was focused on the battle unfolding upstairs, either in the room or on the TV monitors that were still on the floor. So no one noticed when Cordelia/Jasmine suddenly reappeared on the roof.

"He should be finishing them off." she said calmly. "But in case he leaves anybody alive…"

Cordelia/Jasmine began chanting again. And again a small circle of energy appeared at chest level. Only this time the circle was darker.

Much darker.

**10:59:57/10:59:58/10:59:59/11:00:00**


	24. 11 PM to 12 AM

Chapter 24

The Following takes place between 11 PM and 12 AM on the day of the autumnal equinox

Sahjhan tried not to give away any sign that the appearance of Connor had unsettled or unnerved him in any way, but it was clear that something had changed.

"I'm sorry, we've never been formally introduced," Connor said. "My name is Connor Stevenson. And, if I'm not mistaken, you're the demon responsible for sending me to a hell dimension." He gave a small smile. "How ya doin'?"

Sahjhan wasn't the only one unsettled by the turn of events. "Connor, what the hell are you doing here?" Angel asked, sounding angry to try and hide his nervousness at the situation..

"Gunn brought me here. He and that nice woman, Fred, they were kind enough to tell me exactly who was here. I have to admit, it's a pretty nasty story. I'm sure I would hate you even more if I could remember the last…um, seventeen years, was it?"

A look of puzzlement appeared on the demon's face. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

"It's a long story and it probably wouldn't interest you." Connor began walking towards him. "It washes out like this: You were released from your prison, I broke out of mine-- and we're here now. I was never one to believe in destiny or fate, but this is how it's played out."

Both Buffy and Angel had managed to get into Connor's line of sight-- not an easy trick considering the size of the demon. "Connor, are-- are you sure you can do this?" asked Buffy.

Connor gave a shaky smile. "I'm supposed to do this."

Sahjhan must have noticed the uncertainty in Connor's voice because he recovered some of his poise. "I should have knowndumping the kid in the Quor-tothwould come around and bite me in the ass." He looked the young man up and down. "Oh well."

Without warning he moved in and threw a left hook. Connor dodged it and threw a punch of his own.

The fight began. For almost a minute the others in the room just watched the demon and the son of two vampires engage each other. Connor was doing well in the fight-- better than Buffy or Faith had -- but it was also clear that he wasn't doing a great job of beating the huge demon. Which apparently occurred to Connor as well because, while sweeping around so that he was now within a few feet of Angel and Buffy, he began speaking rapidly:

"Quick question: in this prophecy--"

Connor threw a punch.

"--was there anything that said--"

He dodged a blow.

"--that the son of the vampire with a soul--"

He jumped backward

"--killed Sahjhan alone?"

Buffy and Angel looked at each other. "I'm pretty sure it didn't say anything about that," Buffy said.

"Well, what are you waiting for," said Connor a trifle huffily, "a written invitation?"

Angel needed no second bidding and began attacking Sahjhan.

Buffy took the opportunity to check on the others. First she ran over to Faith, who had recovered enough from her being tossed into a wall to stand.

"Was…wondering when…you'd get to me," Faith groaned as she worked out the kinks.

Buffy looked at Faith's left arm, hanging at an angle that couldn't be natural. "How's it feel?"

"Worse than it looks," Faith replied. "I think I'm done fighting." She looked over at the others. "What about the non-combatants?"

It took Buffy a few seconds to realize who she meant. "Shit! I forgot." Buffy negotiated the wreckage until she got to Andrew and Leonard who were being tended to by Kennedy, the only member of the first group to take on Sahjhan who was still in any condition to work. Leonard seemed all right, but Andrew looked like he was barely conscious. Still, considering that he'd been hit with a computer, he was probably lucky.

"I guess we're the walking wounded." Buffy said as she walked up to them.

"I can handle that," Kennedy said, "but if we don't figure out a way to put that Jabba the Hut wannabe down, we're gonna be walking dead.".

"Actually… Jabba… was twice the size of…Sahjhan," Andrew said faintly

Both Slayers looked at Andrew. "Good to know he's still with us," said Kennedy. "Doesn't change our problem."

Buffy thought for a couple of seconds before going over to Leonard. "The laser thingy? Where is it?"

Leonard thought for a moment before pointing. Buffy followed his finger and picked it out. It looked banged up, but it still looked like it could fire. "Okay I've got an idea. It's a bit out there, but it could work."

It had become clear that Sahjhan was taking a hell of beating, but he still looked like he could go ten rounds with Holyfield. "You know I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I went through all that shit with Holtz for no reason." The demon was clearly hurt but he was still breathing normally. "I mean this is tough, but I think I can wait you out."

Connor and Angel were becoming concerned themselves. "The prophecy…says I kill…this guy…" Connor managed.

"Yeah," Angel agreed.

"It didn't mention…how…by any…chance?"

Buffy looked ahead at what was happening several feet away from here. She realized that it was time to execute her plan, shaky as it was. "Faith! Willow's knife!

The dark-hared Slayer might have been badly hurt but she had her eyes and one working hand. She found the knife in a matter of seconds. She looked at the three circling figures, mentally measured the distance between them, then yelled: "Connor!" and threw the knife to him.

Connor caught it with one hand. Buffy readied the laser, aimed and fired.

The beam burned through the top of Sahjhan's head. He screamed and dropped his guard. The instant he did Connor buried the blade in the demon's chest.

In the end Sahjhan didn't even scream. He just went "Woof!" and collapsed at Connor's feet.

The young man stood there for a few seconds before Angel walked up and put an arm around his shoulders. "You okay?"

Connor looked at the disgusting mess Sahjhan had left on his shirt. "This stuff poisonous?" he finally asked.

Of all the things he thought Connor would ask, that was close to the bottom of Angel's list. "I--I don't think so."

"Hmmm." Connor thought it over. "Will it come out in the wash?" he asked.

"You're probably better off getting rid of the shirt," Buffy informed him as she and Kennedy rapidly closed the distance between them. "Unless you're considering doing this for a living, Then we have a good dry cleaner that we can recommend."

Connor considered. "I…I don't think so. I just…" He sighed. "I don't think I have the stomach for it."

"Probably a wise choice." said Buffy

"Yeah, the pay sucks and the hours are lousy," Kennedy said. "On the plus side, the dental plan's pretty good." No one laughed. Kennedy shrugged and kneeled to the ground to check on Andrew. "Hey, I thought it was funny."

Buffy walked over to Faith. "You should probably go to the hospital."

Memories that she had been keeping in all day suddenly overwhelmed Faith. "Robin. Oh my god. I gotta--"

"What's wrong?" Buffy asked. Faith looked as if she would collapse "What happened to Robin?"

"H-he's d-dying.

Though Buffy had suspected that something was wrong with Robin, it still hurt to hear.

She turned to Kennedy. "Get Fred on the phone. Tell her that Sahjhan's gone and we've got people down. I'll be--"

Suddenly Buffy looked up and saw that Angel was right behind her. "Something's wrong."

"Now what? Aren't we--" Suddenly she trailed off as she realized something. "Oh no. I completely forgot."

"What?" Despite her injuries Kennedy had walked over to the two champions. "What did you forget?'

"Cordelia," said Angel.

**11:13:39/11:13:40/11:13:41**

Even after she spotting the car following them, Patrice held out a faint hope that they might still be able to outrun her pursuers. She had, however, forgotten the power Angel-Slayer had at its disposal. After more than twenty minutes of pursuit, she and Harmoney had come to a road block of at least half a dozen cars. They had no more road to travel on.

Even Harmony seemed resigned to her fate: "I guess the idea of driving off the road into a gaping gulch is pretty much out of the question."

"The walls must be a foot of concrete," Patrice said, shaking her head. "If we were to even drive into it we'd be flattened like pancakes."

"And considering what we are, we'd probably survive the crash." Harmony sighed. "Well, I guess we have one last play."

"Which is?'

"Throw ourselves on their mercy." Off Patrice's incredulous look, she said: "Well, they are the good guys after all. They have compassion."

"We nearly brought about an apocalypse that would have killed them all. You think they'll let us live?"

Harmony looked at the flashing lights ahead of them. "They forgave Angel. And Faith. And Spike. Hell, they forgave Willow and she killed a man while trying to destroy the world." She turned back to Patrice. "Besides, they're going to want to know how we put this whole thing together." She put her hand to her forehead. "The good guys always need to know how they almost got beat."

Part of Patrice-- the Slayer part of her-- wanted to go out fighting. But part of her still believed what Harmony had talked about earlier. She still wanted to live. And right now, that part was stronger. She took a deep breath. "How do we do this?"

"When you get out of the car, make sure that you've got your hands over your head. Lacking a white flag, that's the universal symbol for 'we give up." Harmony looked out the windshield and took in the figures, who were clearly heavily armed. "Other than that, hope no one gets trigger happy." She looked back at Patrice. "On three." She put her hand on the door. "One. Two. Three."

They both got out of the car, each of them putting their hands over their head the second they stepped outside. Slowly they walked into the cool night air, to the figures on the road block. Patrice could see no familiar faces, and that was a mercy. She didn't think that she could take the stares of anger and betrayal of someone who they had trusted. Then she thought of the looks on Buffy and Angel's faces when they had nearly caught up with her at the ambulance, and realize that might have been the best result she could have hoped for from them.

They stopped when they were directly in front of the roadblock and had every gun trained on them "We surrender," said Harmony. "We'll tell you whatever it is you want to know. Just let us live."

"That's a rather misleading statement…"

Given their position neither woman dared turn around but they were both very surprised to hear the speaker.

"…considering that you're not alive any more."

"You know what I mean, Spike."

Listening to Harmony, Patrice realized that the gods of irony must have been having a field day with what was happening.

"I must say, given everything you went through today, the armies you raised, the magic you used, the people you dealt with, that you wouldn't just stop at a roadblock of guards and say: 'Oh. That's it then.'"

"Come on, Spike. Considering how much I've changed since you last saw me don't you believe that I might have finally learned to know when you're beaten?"

Spike was only a few feet away from Harmony. "Given everything I've seen today…" He hemmed and hawed for a few seconds. "…no."

"Smart boy."

Before Patrice realized what Harmony meant, the blond vampire was in motion. She kneed Spike in the groin and knocked him down seconds before guns started firing. Patrice hit the dirt, sure that it was too late, that she was going to die here.

She managed to look to her right and see Harmony make it to the car Spike had emerged from. "I still want to live," the blond. "But on my terms." With that she got in the car, shouted something else and sped away.

Patrice picked herself up and found out that she hadn't been hit after all. Then she saw Spike walk over to her and realized she was still in deep shit. Patrice put her hands up.

Spike walked up to her. "You going to get lively too?"

"No." Then despite all the trouble she was in, she asked: "What did Harmony say before she left?"

Spike looked a little preoccupied. "She said she was faking the whole time we were together."

Patrice knew something was up. No man would have voluntarily repeated that unless his mind was on something else.

He looked up at the blockade. "Have any of you blokes seen Willow?" There was a general negative response. "She was in the car with me. No way Harmony just walks off with it if Will's on her mark." He scratched his head. "Something's wrong."

He fumbled around in his jacket pockets and picked up a cell phone. "Something's happened at the building," he said as he dialed.

**11:22:50/11:22:51/11:22:52**

Something bad _had _happened at Angel-Slayer, something of such a magnitude that at Dawn's telephone call, Willow had teleported there without telling anyone else. She was hovering in the air around the roof while most of the board (those who weren't being treated for fighting Sahjhan)watched what was happening from the one still functioning camera.

"How the hell did she get up there?" Buffy asked.

"Didn't she leave the roof when Godzilla Junior started his rampage?"

Fred shrugged. "She teleported here. Maybe she teleported back. "

"She didn't bother to witness the devastation she let loose?" Angel asked.

"Why does that matter?" Gunn had only arrived half an hour earlier with Connor and thus missed all of the excitement.

"Jasmine's here now, she's going to destroy us now."

"Maybe. If that's really her."

Everyone whirled towards Lindsey. "You know," Angel said, getting in his face, "I'm getting real tired of you giving us the runaround. If you know something, quit bullshitting us and be straight."

"All right. I think there's a very good possibility that Cordelia might be more in control of her body then we think."

"Cordelia was always a queen bitch." Buffy said softly, "but she was never in favor of apocalypses in high school."

"That's not what I mean," said Lindsey. "Consider everything that she's done today. Or more precisely what she _hasn't_ done. She's had numerous opportunities to kill us and she hasn't. Remember back at the hotel she could have easily killed you and Angel? She let both of you live."

Suddenly a part of Buffy's memory kicked in. "She had Wesley dead in her sights and she just wounded him," she added thoughtfully.

"She could have let Sahjhan loose back at the beach where we had less defenses and fewer weapons." Angel said, getting the picture. "Instead she does it here where we have a better chance of beating him."

"And then she doesn't even bother to watch him beat the shit out of you," said Lindsey. "Something is making her hold back."

"That may be true," said Fred, "but why is she doing this?" She gestured at the one flickering monitor that showed the roof. There Cordelia/Jasmine was floating a few inches off the ground. In front of her she was generating a lot of energy, much like she had back at the beach. But there was clearly something far more ominous being done. The vortex she was creating was already a good deal bigger than the one at the beach-- nearly nine feet in diameter already. And the sky, which had been perfectly clear half an hour ago, was alight with flashes of lightning. Every few seconds, a blast of thunder shook the night. Cordelia/Jasmine was casting some very black magic and God knew what the end result would be.

At that moment, Willow, who had been floating outside the building trying to get a good look at what Cordelia/Jasmine was doing, reappeared back in the room. "Well?" Buffy asked.

Willow did not look happy. "I worked my way completely around the perimeter of the roof and one of two things is happening: Either she's got a magic shield so good that the others were just paper bags by comparison, or I'm still weak from my last go-round with her. Either way it's going to take at least fifteen minutes for me to break it down."

"And we don't have that long," Angel guessed.

Willow shook her head. "She hasn't just created a magical vortex, she's created a magical time bomb. When the vortex gets big enough, not only will it swallow this building, it will release enough magical energy to make Hiroshima seem like a camera flash." She shook her head. "She must have drained some of my magical power when we were fighting at the beach to generate this…thing."

"Do you have any good news?" asked Gunn.

"Well, I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance," said Willow. When everyone looked at her, she said: "Joke reflex. Must have come from hanging around Xander too long."

"Speaking of Xander, where the hell is he?" asked Buffy.

"I don't know," Fred answered her. "He showed up at the building a couple of hours ago but I haven't seen hide nor hair of him since."

"Maybe he's somewhere safe," said Gunn.

"No such luck." Angel had suddenly seen something on the monitor.

"What do you-- " Willow stopped short. "Oh my God, no!"

There on the monitor standing just a few feet away from Cordelia/Jasmine and the huge vortex was Xander.

**11:31:06/11:31:07/11:31:08/11:31:09**

Cordelia/Jasmine was so wrapped up in her magical mystery show that she hadn't noticed that Xander was so close to her for quite some time. In fact when Xander began what he called "the final approach" he thought that there was a very good chance he might be able to pull it off without Cordelia/Jasmine noticing him. For the rest of his life, despite the efforts of his friends, he would wonder if it would have made what followed easier or more difficult.

In any case Cordelia/Jasmine finally did notice him. It was hard to realize at first, as she didn't bother turning to face him, but she did react. "You! How the hell did you get here?" she demanded.

"Me? Oh, I've been here forever." Xander was less than ten feet away from her but only six or seven feet away from the vortex. He decided to halt his forward motion for now.

"How the hell did you get past my magical shield?" Cordelia/Jasmine seemed genuinely upset by the notion.

"Well, when I saw you set Goliath free an hour ago I figured you'd come back here eventually. I mean you always did like seeing things destroyed." Xander made sure his hands were still behind his back. "Besides, it's not like you ever cared about things that didn't involve you."

Cordelia/Jasmine didn't shift her attention from her vortex, but it was clear that she seemed a little more distracted. "You think you know me? You weren't even here when I first came onstage."

_Something's getting to her,_ he thought to himself. _Time to up the ante._ "That wasn't the 'you' that I was talking about," he said very carefully.

"Oh I get it. You're talking about your old friend Cordelia Chase. Your first real girlfriend." She gave a disgusted laugh. "Let me see if I get your little plan here. You're going to lay that whole spiel about Cordelia still being here, that she wouldn't do this kind of thing, and bullshit along that line."

_Don't give away anything, keep up the poker face._ "That's the problem with all you omniscient types." Xander was still speaking calmly. "Can't get nothing past you."

"Let me guess. You were going to give a variation of that schtick that you gave when you managed to talk down Willow from her eve of destruction. One schlocky speech fits all deities." She seemed to be refocusing her energy. "Well, Willow didn't have the killer instinct for this kind of work. I do. You'd be wasting your breath."

"For one thing it's my breath to waste, and for another you're mistaken."

"Excuse me?" That distracted Cordelia/Jasmine for a couple of seconds-- almost long enough for her to lose control over her magic. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm not trying to talk down Cordelia because Cordelia is dead." Xander hoped that she didn't notice the quiver in his voice as he said that. "As dead as Princess Diana, grunge and intelligent political discourse. You know how I know that?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Because as much of a bitch as Cordy could be, she would never throw in with something like this. If there was a spark of Cordy left in that body, she would be fighting you tooth and manicured nail to stop you from doing what you're doing."

He walked forward another few steps. "No, Cordelia is dead."

"Then why did you come up here?" She didn't look up but Jasmine sounded curious.

"To stop you."

Watching the monitor Angel saw what Xander was doing and shouted "NO!" but even as he saw the glint of the gun in Xander's hand, it was too late.

Xander fired three times. The first shot happened so quickly that Jasmine didn't have time to turn or block the bullet. She whirled around quickly but Xander didn't flinch and fired twice more. The second slug went into Jasmine's hand and shattered her wrist, while the third joined the first in her stomach.

For what seemed like a long time Jasmine just stood there, but was in reality only fifteen or twenty seconds. Then her knees gave out and she fell. As she fell there was a large flash knocking Xander backwards and the gun out of his hands.

Willow was the first to recover from her shock, realizing the potential consequences of what had happened. She quickly teleported out and onto the perimeter of the building. As she did so, Xander very slowly regained his feet, trying very hard not to look at the body of-- whoever it was she had been at the end.

"Xan… Xander?" a very weak voice called.

Willow and Xander heard it simultaneously and returned to the woman who was still bleeding from the bullets but was apparently not dead yet.

Xander would never be able to successfully explain how he had known that the person speaking was not the one that he had just confronted him. All he knew was that something was fundamentally different about the voice he was hearing. He crawled the few feet between them and said: "Cordelia? Sweet Jesus, is that you?"

"Cordelia? Goddess, Cordelia!" Even as she spoke Willow knew from her aura that this wasn't really Cordelia anymore-- just the shell-- the shell of a shell-- of what had once been the girl that she knew.

"What have I done?" Cordelia sounded so bereft. "God, what have I done?"

And even though she had nearly fought her to the death less than two hours ago, Willow found herself rushing to Cordelia's side and trying to see the damage the bullets had done.

Suddenly Cordelia was shaking violently. "No! Stay back, you parasitic bitch!" Her head snapped back and she was almost there again.

"Cordelia, we have to get down from here." Xander was speaking rapidly again.

Willow was about to add her own entreaty when suddenly she felt something tickle her elbow. She drew back in horror when she realized what it was. "Xander! The vortex!" she called out before propelling the three of them back against the rubble on the roof.

The vortex was well over twelve feet in diameter. Some of the stray rubble from the roof began to be drawn into it.

"Willow! Can you close that thing?" begged Xander.

"I can't!" said Willow. "My magic just doesn't work on it."

"Of course it won't." Suddenly Jasmine was in Cordelia's voice again. "My old magic is more powerful than yours ever will be, witch!" Then another seizure went through her. "Oh G-God, she won't st-stay go-gone."

"We have to get you out of here!" Xander was becoming frantic.

"Y-you can't." Cordelia's voice was getting fainter. Willow was amazed that she was still alive. "We have to stop this thing."

"I don't know how."

By some miracle Cordelia had managed to get to her feet. "I do." she said.

Xander got it a split second after Willow did. "No, no you can't do this!" he began to stammer and stutter "Y-you're back! We can't--"

"Stop simpering and listen to me."

That sounded enough like the old Cordelia to cause Xander to shut up. "All right."

"Jasmine told the truth about what happened to me. When she took over m-my body, she got rid of almost everything that was me." Cordelia was breathing hard again. "Only a fragment was left… Enough to stop her from killing all of you outright." She hesitated. "But I'm al-almost gone."

"We can bring you back!" said Willow without thinking.

"That's what got you into trouble last time." A small trail of blood was flowing from Cordelia's mouth, she ignored it. "Besides, what's happening here," she gestured to the vortex "It's my mess. Jasmine won't clean it up so that leaves me."

Xander would have argued more but the vortex was still expanding. He might have argued anyway but Willow walked up to him and said: "She's right. I-I don't want her to be…but she's right." She looked at Cordelia. "Are you sure you can do this?"

A ghost of a smile appeared on her face. " 'You never know until you're tested. I get that now.'" The smile faded. "Tell the others that…this was the way it had to be. And tell Angel…I am so sorry for everything."

Willow swallowed and nodded.

"Xander." The young man was barely holding it together. Cordelia put her arms around his shoulders. "Thank you for everything."

"For what?" he managed to get out.

"Letting me say goodbye." She paused and kissed his forehead. "Just in case."

Then she walked up to the border of the vortex and began to chant. Halfway through she jumped in. She began to shake and then there was a relatively small flash, like that of a burnt out camera bulb.

When the light cleared, the vortex and Cordelia were gone.

Xander walked up to the edge of the roof and said. "It's over."

Then he began to cry.

**11:46:38/11:46:39/11:46:40/11:46:41**

After the fall of the energy barrier Angel and Buffy had headed straight for the roof. They therefore missed most of Cordelia's brief return to normality and broke the door down just in time to see the vortex implode.

After seeing the burst of light, Angel had known in his soul that Cordelia was gone forever. He could not however stop himself from running to the edge of the building.

"You'd better stay where you are." There was a flatness in Willow's voice that was disturbing. "There might be some magical residue that could…could…"

Suddenly Willow's voice began to shake. "Oh goddess. W-why did she have to--" Angel turned around to see Willow go to Xander and embrace her friend.

Both were weeping. Angel was unnerved. He had never seen either of them cry like this before-- even when he had helped cause the pain.

Buffy had managed to walk over to her two best friends. She had only seen Willow cry like this once-- upon learning of Jenny Calendar's murder-- and she had never seen Xander cry at all. For some reason that bothered her more than Cordelia being gone forever. Buffy wanted to cry herself-- but couldn't. Because if she started crying for Cordelia, she would start crying for all of the others. Not just the ones who had died today, but all of the people that they had lost: Anya and Tara and Jonathan and Amanda, stretching back to all the nameless dozens that had died in Sunnydale and Los Angeles over the past seven years. Part of her knew that was stupid-- that part of her becoming one of hundreds of Slayer meant that she no longer had to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders. But the pain had been so much of a part of her for so long she didn't think she could give it up.

So she put one hand on Willow's shoulder and another on Xander's, squeezed and asked the question she had to. "Was it really Cordelia at the end?"

Xander managed to nod. "I-it might ha-have been e-easier if it hadn't b-been her." he said through his sobs.

"No," she reassured him. "It would have been hard no matter who she was at the end. Of that I'm absolutely sure."

Willow swallowed and managed to gain some control over herself. "I don't think I ever liked Cordelia," she said. "Even when we were working together I could barely stand her. I don't think I was ever able to accept her as one of the Scoobies. But now that she's really gone--" She shook her head. "I don't know if I'll be able to get past this."

"We will." All three of them looked up at Angel. "It hurts when somebody vital is gone. You feel hollow inside. But eventually you get past it. The important thing is not to get over it. " Angel was looking at the night sky. "People talk about heartbreak, but the heart is a muscle. You can strain it, maybe even pull it but it can't be broken. And strains and pulls can be gotten over easier than breaks."

They all took this in for several seconds. "That's really very deep" said Xander "considering that your heart hasn't worked properly in years."

"Xander, don't," Buffy started.

"I mean you talk about all these pains and anguishes but the fact of the matter is your own heart is--" Xander looked up to make a point.

Only to see that Angel had left the roof. "I hate when he does shit like that," said Xander, irritated.

"Shut up, Xander," said Willow. "Considering what happened I'd say he's earned his right to mourn."

Gunn and Fred took what had happened nearly as hard as Willow and Xander. However Gunn hadn't cried since his sister's funeral, so he expressed his frustration by taking out his aggression against a wall.

The wall won.

"I don't think anything's broken," Fred said as she checked his hand, "but you might have twisted or sprained something. You'd better have it looked at."

"I know." said Gunn. "The medical insurance business is getting rich off us tonight. Maybe if I hurry I can catch up with Faith and Cho-san's ambulance." He looked at Fred. "You should probably come over too."

"I will," Fred responded. "I've just got to finish up here."

"You've been doing this all day."

"I know, but I've put so much work into this I'd feel better if I, you know, put it to bed."

"Bed." said Gunn. "Man, that sounds like a good idea. I feel like I could sleep for a couple of months."

"Second that." Fred thought for a moment. "Of course, there are a couple of things that we're gonna have to handle when we get back."

"You mean like Lindsey?" He and Kennedy had put the ex-lawyer in one of the holding cells. "Man, I'd hoped that we were through with him when he drove off into the sunset two years ago. That guy's pure trouble."

"What about Connor? I mean, is he back in this too?" asked Fred

This Gunn thought he could handle. "I had a conversation with him on the way here. Basically told me that when it comes to being a champion, thanks but no thanks." Gunn shook his head. "I'm not sure whether that makes him a coward or incredibly brave."

Fred thought it over. "I think it makes him smart." She gave a sad smile. "Smarter than some, anyway."

"I guess so." Gunn turned around. "Sure you don't want to come to the hospital with me?"

"Go without me. I'll get a ride with someone else."

Gunn walked away. Fred waited until he was gone, then walked to her desk, picked up the phone and dialed. "Wesley? This is Fred. We're just about finished here. The world's not going to end today after all." Fred paused. "Anyway Wesley, a lot has happened today and some things in my mind have just become clearer." She took a deep breath. "My heart and my head have finally agreed and I know who I want to be with."

Spike shook his head as Dawn finished speaking. "I guess I was wrong about Cordelia one last time," he said.

"We all were," said Dawn. She sighed. "God we're going to be months getting over this."

"Shit! I almost forgot." Spike gathered himself. "Kate, that lady cop who was a friend of Angel's. "

"Yeah."

"She's dead. One of those suits--" Suddenly Spike trailed off as he saw something that he couldn't-- shouldn't have seem. "Hold on a second."

He walked very rapidly until he saw the woman he had missed. "Kate. How the--" He stopped. "Are you still alive?"

"Apparently so." The ex-cop turned around. When she did, Spike saw that there was a small hole in her shirt-- big enough for one thing.

_This is crazy_ Spike said but he reached out and touched her shoulder regardless.

She remained corporeal. Now he got it. "I guess when you quit being the fuzz, you held on to a few things?"

Kate nodded and pulled back her shirt, revealing a Kevlar vest. "Special issues for prisons. Not only bulletproof but shank-proof, too. Considering the people I keep company with, I felt it would be wise to hold on to a few."

"But…won't this get you in trouble with whoever it is you work with?"

"Oh yeah." said Kate grimly. "In fact, as soon as I finish up here I'm going to have to disappear for awhile."

Spike looked puzzled. "So why'd you expose yourself?"

Kate shrugged. "I'm not. I was driving out of LA when I ran into this roadblock. I got out to see what was the matter and I find that you and your friends are still causing problems."

Spike was taken aback by the woman's hostility. "But…we've won. The apocalypse has been averted," he said a little dazedly.

"Congratulations. It doesn't change my situation with the government one bit or make my life any easier. Things are still tough and they're only going to get tougher." She looked at her watch. "Now if you'll excuse me I have to find a place to hide. Would you do me a huge favor and not tell any of your friends that you know what's happened to me?"

Kate walked away without waiting for an answer. It was just as well. Spike wasn't sure what he could have said to her.

"Spike? Spike?

Suddenly he realized that Dawn was still on the phone. "Sorry, Little Bit. Thought I saw something that wasn't there."

"Kate's dead?"

Spike thought for a second. "I didn't see for sure but I think so."

Dawn sighed. "So just to review. Harmony managed to get away, Thompson and whoever else in the Wolfram & Hart bureaucracy is working against us is still out there, and there's a government contingency working with them and against us." She put her hands on her forehead.

"You and your friends sure have complicated lives."

Despite herself Dawn smiled. "So what are you going to do?" she asked.

Spike thought about it. "Well I've never been much for the corporate life. And I don't think LA's a big enough town for two vampires with souls." He thought some more. "Still I did get a bit of satisfaction from helping kick evils ass. And I know that I need to do a lot more if I'm gonna have a chance of getting into heaven."

Dawn considered this. "You really think that any of us are going to get into heaven?"

A lot of things went through Spike's head, and even though it wasn't what he believed he said it anyway: "Course. God won't have the balls to keep us out."

As expected, Dawn chuckled. "All right. Have the drivers take you began to the main building. Once you get there, we'll find a place to stow Patrice until we can question her more intensely. After that we'll find you a place to crash for a while."

"Right then." Spike then asked a question he would not in a million years thought he would ever ask: "How's Angel holding up?"

"I… Why would…? Do you even care?" Dawn seemed flustered.

"Hey, I know what its like to lose a woman you love." Spike said softly. "And I also know that you can go to a pretty dark place when you do."

Dawn thought it over. "It won't be easy but I think that he'll get through it. I mean, he got over Buffy, didn't he?'

In an alley about a block away from Wolfram & Hart, Angel stood by himself. The night was a cool one for LA but that was not the reason he was shaking.

He knew that he could talk about hearts being strained or pulled or whatever stupid fucking metaphor he had used but he was feeling a world of hurt. Was it as bad as it had been when he heard Buffy had died again? Or when he had thought he had lost Connor forever? He didn't think so, but it was bad. Real bad.

"Cordy, Cordy." That was all that he seemed able to say. He wanted to ask for forgiveness or peace or mercy but the words just would not come. He knew that he had never loved her the way that he had loved Buffy-- or Darla, for that matter-- but he was feeling a grief that he didn't think he could get over.

He knew that he didn't have to be alone for this-- there were people in that building feeling as much pain as he was-- but somehow he just couldn't be with them now.

The worst part was he knew it wouldn't kill him. He'd be feeling all kinds of anguish for a while but he would be able to get past that and adjust to a world without Cordelia. And he wasn't sure how he'd manage to get through that.

After what seemed like an eternity he managed to gather his strength. He decided that he would go to the hospital-- check up on Wesley and Giles and Faith and find comfort with his friends. He started walking-- and then remembered his car was still out at the beach. He considered calling for another one, then decided that he would walk. The night air would wake him.

Even though he had been up for nearly two whole days, he had never felt less like sleeping in his life.

He put his hands in his duster and said a silent prayer, not just for Cordelia, but for all of them living and dead who had survived this struggle.

Then he started walking.

**11:59:57/11:59:58/11:59:59/12:00:00**


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